To be in shock four hour later

[Rhinosaurus]

This morning, my son - the 15 year old

........ who cannot get out of bed.
........who misses two school buses a week because he gets out of bed at 0750 (bus leaves at 0800).
........who sits on the sofa and stuffs food wrappers down the side rather than walk across the room to the bin.
.........who goes to put something in the dishwasher, but when he sees it is full of clean stuff having just finished its cycle, stacks plates and cups up on the worktop waiting for someone else to empty it.
.........who puts clean clothes in the laundry basket rather than fold them up and put them away.

was downstairs in the kitchen today, dressed in school uniform, at 0730, emptying the dishwasher with a cup of tea made for me on the table.....

Is he on drugs?

Is there a major unreasonable request coming up, requiring girding of the loins......

Help!

Bless him. And poor Dave.

I hope he carries on taking the dog for a walk though.

I think you need to rename your wonderful son. He is not Kevin, that's for certain!

What a bloody lovely friend (and the others) Dave has. Poor, poor boy.

I lurked. And now I'm crying. That doesn't happen very often to me on here.

Awww - lurker here with a pre-Kevin 10 year old and I hope he turns out to be as thoughtful as your Kevin when he hits teenager-dom.

Are you going to show Kevin this thread?

Oh poor dave but bravo Kevin! Good instincts from you too - you knew sonmething was up! You're raising a decent man there - even with all the kevin stuff. I hope you feel proud of yourself too

it's stories like Dave's that make me realise what a jammy (naive) existence i had (and my mini Kevins will have) at 15 yrs of age.

He would be absolutely mortified to see this thread, it could already out me if the others boys mums are MNetters.

The job hunting was not related to Dave, that was just for money, so is probably still saving up for a festival/Ibiza/baby.

What a lovely bunch of young men, you should all be very proud. Poor 'Dave' I hope he manages to get something sorted out.

you should keep it to show to him one day.

What a great bunch of young lads they all sound - rallying around for a friend in need. They must have thought that Dave would get in trouble if any parents found out

I hope that our ds's grow up to be such good friends to their friends, and sincerely hope that some of Kevin's appreciation of you lasts for a while!

Oh, Kevin sounds wonderful and how awful for Dave.

Be proud of your son.

If Dave has not had the same sort of trust with his parents as Kevin has with you, then he probably asked the friends to not say anything. Poor bugger. I hope he gets the sort of help he needs to set him on the path to a decent adult life.

Hope Kevin keeps up the appreciation!:D

Lurker weeping here too - lovely story. Have a Kevin here and it gives me hope

So sorry for Dave, poor lad , but he has the benefit of true Friends - Well done those Kevins, all of them. I bet you're proud of your one, I am.

Illuminating chat with PCSO though. He said lots of parents don't have a clue where their teens are staying - they say they are going to one friends and then stay elsewhere, it's not like primary school where they have properly organised sleepovers and you actually meet the parents and see the house where they are staying.

Also, if a 14 year old or over runs away,i.e. not missing but you know where they are, the police cannot force them to return home unless they are considered to be in danger where they are staying, and the parents could end up having maintenance taken off them via CSA to the household where their child is staying, even if they haven't given permission for their child to live there

Poor Dave. And what a lovely mature Kevin you have. Hope DS turns out so kind...

Poor dave but well done Kevin. You must be proud of him. And if he has learnt a lesson in appreciating you more then that's a bonus

Be proud of yourself too, for raising such a caring son. Dave may not have much, but a caring group of friends like that is at least something.

Here you go . Cheers!

Lovely son, poor Dave. You do realise he'll go back to being slovenly now though don't you?

It is heart breaking what some kids go through. A couple of years ago we went to see dd1 in a drama project her school had done with the local theatre. It was a slightly scary play and we didn't think dd3 would cope and dd2 wasn't too interested either. As it was short (45 minutes) I asked the 15 year old daughter of friends to meet us at the Macdonalds nearby and she sat with the kids whilst we went to the play. We would have taken her home afterwards but her mum was perfectly happy for her to catch the bus. I distinctly remember watching her bounce off down the street - a happy, confident, independant but also cared for girl. On the way home, at the end of our street, a lad walked past us. As he passed I realised his nose was bleeding so I stopped him and asked if he was ok. He had been beaten up and his phone smashed. We wanted to call the police but his instant reaction showed us that wouldn't work. We wanted to call an ambulance but he plainly wouldn't stay around for that either. In the end we told him where we lived and he came round to our door a few minutes later. We got him cleaned up and dh took him home - or to where he said he lived at least. It was all he would accept from us and at least it got him away from the place where he'd run in to trouble. He wouldn't tell us his exact age but we suspected he was also 15. Such a contrast with my friend's daughter. It made us very sad. I hope he had a Kevin too

Another one with teary eyes. What a lovely lovely son you have. Poor poor Dave. Some kids don't stand a chance do they?

Poor Dave! What a rubbish situation but you should be proud of Kevin for being so supportive.

Poor Dave and your Kevin sounds lovely.

Just returned to catch up on this thread and am choking back the tears. What a brilliant, fantastic son you have raised. Well done you