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Original poster

What would you do if you ended up with a teenage 'brat'

63 replies

Blandmum · 23/02/2006 08:23

Having watched 'Brat Camp' last night I had my usual semi-panic over what I would do if dd/ds ended up this bratish.

What stratagies would you/have you used to curb excessive behaviour in older kids.

Can you ground them, if they are big enough to just walk out of the house? Stop pocket money....will they then just steal from you?

Seeing some of these kids...one had been reported as a missing person 70-80 times, one was smoking 20 spliffs a day, one was extremly violent....yuo are left wondering what the parents can do. And in my experience (school wise) social services tend not to be much help.

What would you do?

OP posts:
Caligula · 23/02/2006 11:12

alexsmum, yes. As far as possible you can expose your children to interests, so that at least the option is there of playing the guitar, swimming, getting involved in karate club etc.

All takes money though and is no guarantee. I look at it as shortening the odds.

spacedonkey · 23/02/2006 11:12

If there was a simple formula for ensuring one's children didn't turn into teenage brats - we'd all know about it!

Beetroot · 23/02/2006 11:13

i'd send them on brat camp

Caligula · 23/02/2006 11:13

Absolutely. And if I were a charlatan and had lots of time, I'd write the book and make a fortune.

3princesses · 23/02/2006 11:15

The thing about encouraging an interest is that it builds self-esteem and helps out with those identity issues. If you see yourself as being A Good Swimmer or whatever, I guess it might fill the blank space that could be filled with I Am A Dope-Head And Can Down A Bottle Of Vodka In One Evening.

spacedonkey · 23/02/2006 11:17

Nice theory 3Princesses, but I'm sure many teenage brat campers have got talents and interests which they may well have abandoned in their bratdom, or even continue to do alongside the bratdom!

3princesses · 23/02/2006 11:19

vodka in the park on Tuesdays, Chess Club on Thursdays?

Am joking. If only it were that simple.

batters · 23/02/2006 13:03

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Enif · 23/02/2006 16:07

well on the surface my sister and I were the most polite, clever, nice children you could imagine. Our brother was a drug addict weirdo in a gang.

But what no one knew was that our parents were actually bonkers and fought violently almost every night and I would often come home from school and find my mum laying in the bath having taken a bunch of pills.

No one EVER knew that.

All I am saying is...you dont know what goes on behind closed doors...

3princesses · 23/02/2006 16:10

...and there's no simple relationship between what goes in (in parenting terms) and what comes out (in polite, well-adjusted child terms)...

Original poster
Blandmum · 23/02/2006 16:12

True Enif. very true.

OP posts:
cod · 23/02/2006 16:13

Message withdrawn

batters · 23/02/2006 17:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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