Son is distracted by his girlfriend

[carolmarie72]

My son is 18 years old and is set to complete his A-Levels in a few weeks. However, he is more focused on his girlfriend at the moment, and she is very keen on getting married and starting a family with my son instead of going to university. My son wants to study medicine and I don't want him to give up his dream for her, and having kids so young!!! I don't want to be controlling over his relationship, but I feel like he'd be throwing his future away in these circumstances. What do I say to him?

Keep him on side. Tell him you'll support marriage plans but whilst you're supporting these plans, he's to go to university and complete his education as that's sensible and would lead to a greater capacity to earn more money which will pay for weddings and kids

So almost call his bluff. The ideal would be to list concerns and he listens to you. But if he's a typical teen you need to be a bit clever about it.

Of course the high chances are, this romance will fail but try really hard in the meantime to steer him in the right direction whilst also doing a lot of 'smiling and nodding'

I would say very little
a bit of gentle encouragement to focus on his exams and a LOT of listening

Don't say anything, the more you do the more likely he'll push back in the other direction.