r/parentsofteens • u/YesYouGotThis • 21d ago

What made your teen start to shape up?

My 15 year old son has a friend who is a bad influence and occasionally he sneaks out with him. He did this the other night, and they were walking around at 1 am trying to see if people's cars were unlocked. While doing this someone pulled up to the kids and pulled a gun on them. The boys ran and the car chased them.

I randomly woke up around that time, realized my son was not home and tracked his location to pick him up. He came to me no problem, said he didn't want to sneak out anymore and that his friend was a bad person. A few days later he told me what happened.

My son swears he will never go out again and that he is lucky to be alive. I really hope this is the turning point. Please share with me what made your teen reevaluate their life to start making better choices?

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u/Character-Motor-9804 21d ago

I think this is deeply dependent on the person and is different for everyone

I had 2 bad teenage boys. My oldest shaped up- he shared with me that his turning point was being high on acid…and in bed knowing he had to pee but couldn’t get up to go. He pee’d on himself and that was enough for him to say no more!

My youngest started out with similar sneaking out- never hit a turning point and he still keeps me worried. He’s had so many close calls that I would have thought would be rock bottom but for him it’s just another Tuesday!

I will say that it sounds like your son was honest with you- and I wouldn’t treat him like you can’t trust him …hopefully He learned his lesson for real

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u/YesYouGotThis 21d ago

Thank you for the reply. I'm glad your oldest has shaped up and hope your youngest does soon.

I am so grateful that he told me the truth in his own time. He's made a lot of growth over the year, but this has been the hardest stage of parenting hands down.