I'm looking for some collective wisdom please...
My son is 17 and a really lovely kid. He's doing well with his A-levels, has a part-time job he works hard at, a long-term girlfriend and a nice group of friends.
This all sounds great, I know, and he's a genuinely good kid, but he is so lethargic and unenthusiastic about everything, I worry that there's something not quite right. He used to play a lot of sport and was football mad, and that's faded away to nothing. He doesn't really socialise other than seeing his mates at college, and when he sees his girlfriend it's usually at her house for just a few hours. He does play online games at home, and is often heard howling with laughter at something one of his mates has said, but other than that, he doesn't do anything.
We're at the stage now where we're talking about what will happen after his A-levels. His peers are going to uni open days, and thinking about options, and he's refusing to discuss anything really. All questions are met with 'I don't know' and a shrug. I get that he doesn't know what he wants to do, but he's so unenthusiastic about his choices, it's starting to sound alarm bells to me.
I asked him earlier if anything brought him joy. He couldn't think of anything. He said he looks forward to seeing his girlfriend, but that was about it. He says he's happy but this doesn't sound like happiness to me... or am I getting it wrong?
He's always been very private, a closed book emotionally, and while I don't want to be on his case, I do worry about him. For those of you with teens, is this what you've seen or experienced? I know they're all different, but any thoughts or shared wisdom would be great.