[katyseagull]

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I'm older than most of you guys, 54, and I have three kids, 30, 25 and 17. The worst things I've done in my life have involved bad or at least careless parenting. My youngest has fallen off the rails; we had to have an escort come to the house to pick him up in the middle of the night, taking him to six weeks in the wilderness and now he's at a therapeutic boarding school.
...
That walk up the stairs when he got picked up in the middle of the night was the longest, hardest walk of my life. Whatever mistakes we made, we at least know now that we've given him a chance to get his life back together.



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I can't stop thinking about this post. It is sort of haunting me. Couple questions.

What kind of place picks up kids in the middle of the night? Does it cost a fortune? Does your kid write to you or call home? You mentioned that you are fixing your mistakes. When you say "mistakes" are you talking about being too harsh or too lenient with the parenting? I've seen some very harsh parents that have messed up their boys.

I think there are many kids who have a very rough adolescence through no fault of their parents. Some kids just have an obstinate immature personality right? Anyway, thanks for sharing this story with the forum. For what it's worth I think getting kids into wilderness training sounds like a really interesting option. There must be thousands of kids out there who don't do well in conventional school settings but would shine on a ranch or farm or other outdoor arena. Good job at widening his horizon and showing him there's another way.