Melanie - posted on 12/16/2012 ( 5 moms have responded )
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I am a single mother of three who recently started renting from a relative. The problem is that I am quite concerned regarding my teenage nephew. He has stolen from me on numerous occasions and has shown absolutely no remorse about it. He has a supposed history of violence towards his mother and I say supposed because I have never actually seen it occur only what my sister has told me. He is 12 years old, has not attended school since it has started, overweight, has had a history of depression problems. On a recent occasion I overheard he had been lighting fires in the house with an aerosol can. He is verbally disrespectful, and when I asked for an apology he just stared right through me and ignored me, refused to aknowledge the behavior. According to my sister he is on PINS, however I have never seen an officer at the house, and just enrolled in alternative school which he has already missed classes. My sister claims that she is doing everything she can but no one is helping her with him. The therapist seen in the past has not returned any phone calls, and basically she has to wait out the pins. ALthough I am not in the situation as the parent I can not help but get the feeling that there could be more that can be done. I am concerned for my childrens safety although he has never exhibited any violence or disrespect towards them. Is there more than can be done? I wonder if maybe she is procrastinating or is there an exaggeration regarding the severity of violence towards her? I feel that as a parent if it were my child, I would be calling every therapist every church, every group, I would be in his face every second if it meant asking for physical help to take him to a place, it would be sought. What I do see is he behaves for a few days to obtain what he wants and when he gets what he wants the behavior returns, they are taken but never for long.. Even when he stole from me and I was unaware of it, he was nothing but nice asking for things, and joking until I found out what was missing. The fact he could be so innocent with me, meanwhile he knew he had stolen is just mind boggling. I would like to know if I am being too dramatic in my concerns, is this typical of teenagers?, is there more that could be done to help him, should I be involved at all considering its not my child?
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