When they are all grown up or think they are, am I right in thinking

[barbarianoftheuniverse]

that there is nothing more that you can do but love them.

DS(20) is not the person I thought he would be, that he had the potential to be, or that he wanted to be. He is making mistakes with every aspect of his life. It frightens me to see him do it. Everything from his driving to his gf to what he is up to at uni.

I think he still loves us and wants us to love him. We do. My heart aches for him, great, mumbling, angry, hump of a boy that he is. I know all about if you love them let them go.
Tell me I am over protective. Paranoid. Please somebody out there tell me that he will come to his senses one day.

Umm is he taking steroids for the body building?

I don't know. I don't know how you would tell.

It was the rapid muscle bulking up that made me think of it.

But he may not be. Don't take my word for it.

My DS is 15, so not yet at the same stage in life, but I can see how hard it will be to just let them do their own thing.

Tough being a parent.

barbarian, the NHS info on anabolic steroids makes scary reading... Hope you can rule this out...

I don't think so. Thanks Flow. I suppose if he was he would have read the side effects. They include (ridiculous as this sounds) baldness. He has always been terribly afraid of going bald.

That sounds pathetic

He's a young lad, he's still immortal, and won't be thinking about side effects. The rapid increase in muscle and the moody aggressiveness are typical of steroid abuse.