Enough?
My partner and I have lived together for 8 years. Both of his son's lived with us during their high school years and after. One, who is now 22, stole from us constantly. Forged checks, stole money, jewelry, cameras, and so on. He has been in jail twice for his crimes and in and out of so many
rehabs that I find it difficult to count. His Dad has spent all most all of his income each month paying for his son's crimes and money
for anything he could imagine. I have paid the household expenses most all the time in that his Dad is either broke or the boy has found a
way to get into the bank account and take all the money. He started with oxy and now uses heroin. This boy goes into rehab when he thinks the police are getting close, then walks out about a month later, then the cycle of drugs and such starts all over. Then he wants back into detox and rehab and expects his Dad to pay for it all. A couple of times ago his Dad told him "NO MORE" don't come to me until you have at least 6 months of sobriety. However, he left treatment after 5 weeks, and after a two week spree of drugs and draining his Dad's accounts, he is asking for help again. How long do we continue to help this boy in the name of "seeking treatment?" Doesn't the "NO MORE" apply even if he is seeking financial help for treatment after trying to help him for 8 years? I believe he uses some of the things told to him in treatment as a crutch to go out and binge and back to treatment. He says, "well, what happened yesterday is gone and past, we don't dwell on it. This is a new day, a new me and we move forward." Then in about a week to a month he does it all over again. I am considering dissolving my relationship because I cannot take these actions from his Dad. I believe it is way past time for us to disconnect and stop any financial help or time in our home. The last time he was here he fell down the stairs at 3 am from huffing the computer duster can and broke off his two front teeth. The next step was to expect us to get his teeth fixed. Please,
I am seriously in need of comments and help!
Answers
It can be really difficult to balance financially supporting a child and preventing the enabling of their habit. Check out this helpful blog post on enabling for tips on how to avoid enabling a child and resources for support (http://intervene.drugfree.org/2009/10/the-second-parental-deadly-sin-%E2...).
