Princes Trust - and “stuck” teen. Thoughts?

[Mumofteens4892]

My 16yr old is driving me nuts. He’s not in school or college, up all night, asleep all day.

He’s depressed and says “no” to absolutely everything except hanging out in town and getting stoned.

I just found out he’s been stealing money from us, so I have stopped his pocket money and told him I am not driving him anywhere this holidays.

I signed him up for a Princes Trust 12-week course in January. How the hell I can persuade him to go?! And what is it like? Will it be worth the hassle of getting him up?

At my wits end.

They get to go on a residential at some point I think. Not sure if they offer a bursary for lunch and travel? Generally I think it works best for teens who want to be there. Does your local authority have a post 16 NEET team, you could try them for support?

Yes, NEET just emailed me a couple of time to signpost me to websites and stuff. No direct help.

Desperate for him to WANT to do something and I just feel completely powerless. He seemed to think that stealing from us was quite funny.

Where has my lovely boy gone?

Is he addicted to weed? It does terrible things to teens, totally changes their personalities, and yes they lose all motivation. Basically you have to regard him as an addict.

I did the 12 week course years ago and loved it.

Maybe this will be the motivation he needs ❤️

It's so worth it.

They start with a residential, then do community and employment based projects. I've seen it engage hard to reach young adults and get them into employment and education. Not to mention the confidence skills it builds.

The team who run it should link up with him before and start to build a relationship with him, and support you in encouraging him to attend.

Did you turn off the internet at night? Put in some boundaries?

That's a shame, don't they offer a face to face service at all? Does your local youth offending team offer any prevention work at all?

@MissyB1 yes I am SO worried about this - addiction. And I feel completely powerless. DS says he doesn’t care about the stealing, won’t apologise, and doesn’t care about his future at all.

DH is furious, and our house isn’t a nice place to be right now.

I just hope that knowing he is booked on a course gives him an easy “way out” of the current boredom and negativity.

He can choose it, or not, but it’s there, I guess.