Advice Regarding Teenage Son

shortstop

I'd say as long as you feel he is sensible enough to be left then he should be fine.
I was left on my from about 7 or 8 and by the time I was 14 I'd be coming home from school (on my own) doing the laundry/ironing and having tea ready for when my mum came home from work around 7. I also had to get myself up and out for school as mum started work quite early too.
I'd probably agree to them learning how to use the oven though.

azzabazza

Just set some ground rules and so long as there is emergency back-up available I am sure he will be fine.

FBaby

Do you know why he doesn't get on with his mum? I think that as separate parents, the first responsibility is to support the other and make sure they don't play off each other (as teenagers are so good at doing). It might be that you allow him to do things his mum won't and he just wants to get away from her rules. If that is the case, then I don't think you are helping the situation by just saying to your son that it is ok to come and live with you, especially if it means he is on his own for some time in the evening. Wouldn't it be better to first discuss it with his mum? If it is a case that his mum is genuinely neglecting him, then that is another matter.

Before you think I am fighter for pwc rights, I did everything to encourage my son to go to his dad on week-ends when he was 5 and went through a stage he just didn't want to go. His dad, understandbly upset, had decided that he might as well not come. I spend a lot of time with my son to give him confidence to be happy to go to his dad, which he continued to do, and few months later, he had no problem any longer doing so and now really looks forward to it.