I don't really want to go into the whole back story with my difficult child. He's 15 now, and is my stepson. Used to be a sweet, but difficult, kid. Now the sweet is gone and the difficult remains. He's had a number of different diagnoses, including conduct disorder and reactive attachment disorder. At this point, he no longer lives with us, and as stated on the reports, this is for our protection. He has a history of false abuse allegations and becoming aggressive when he doesn't get his way.
Unfortunately, he lives in a group home that is less than 3 miles from our house. When he goes AWOL for days on end, guess where he goes?
The last time he went AWOL, we saw him in our neighborhood and tried to stop him to say "hi" (didn't know he was AWOL at this point, his social worker is notoriously bad at informing us). He ignored us and kept going. We kept going too, and that turned out to be a bad idea. He knew we weren't home, went to our house, tried the doors and windows, found something unlocked (he has found a way to climb to our second-story), and took a bottle of vodka.
Fine. Whatever. I'm just glad that was it. Kids steal alcohol from their parents. I get it.
They found him and put him in rehab. He AWOL'd there by climbing the fence, stole alcohol, brought it back, and when one of the counselors tried to take it from him, he assaulted them.
Spent time in juvie. Was given the option to go back to rehab, but refused. Spent a little more time in juvie. Got placed into a higher level group home out of our area. AWOL'd there almost immediately for over a week, somehow got to another city 50 miles away, and was finally picked up by the police. He refused to go back to the higher level group home and said the only place he'd go back to was the one in our area. They put him back there.
Can you see where this is going?
He AWOL'd again on Monday. We have been very careful to lock our doors and windows. We came home to find the screens torn and bent on several of our windows. He'd let out all of our animals (I run a micro-farm) and shut them out of their pens. Our neighbor was nice enough to grab our dog, who was running willy nilly in the streets. difficult child took two of our hens (I have no idea why). I drove around looking for them, but they are still missing.
I am pretty unhappy, to say the least. My husband maintains that difficult child will not go as far as to break the windows. I'm skeptical. He seems to be escalating his behavior. I know when he was in a foster home less than a year ago (they thought he was ready to transition down a couple of levels), and the foster mom locked him out because he was getting aggressive - he broke one of her doors to get back inside. husband hasn't been reading the court reports like I have. They make him upset, so I read them and summarize the relevant points.
My husband is not interested in activating our alarm system. Does anyone have any theft-deterrent suggestions? Our dog is 10lbs soaking wet, and she is familiar with difficult child, so she's not a lot of help. I'm seriously considering moving the things I value most out of the house. Bought a padlock for the backyard gate. I know he'll just climb over, but this might deter him from taking any more of our animals.
Half the time we don't even know when he's AWOL because the social worker keeps neglecting to inform us. And yes, we've complained to her supervisor - which seemed to have an effect for only one subsequent AWOL.
Unfortunately, he lives in a group home that is less than 3 miles from our house. When he goes AWOL for days on end, guess where he goes?
The last time he went AWOL, we saw him in our neighborhood and tried to stop him to say "hi" (didn't know he was AWOL at this point, his social worker is notoriously bad at informing us). He ignored us and kept going. We kept going too, and that turned out to be a bad idea. He knew we weren't home, went to our house, tried the doors and windows, found something unlocked (he has found a way to climb to our second-story), and took a bottle of vodka.
Fine. Whatever. I'm just glad that was it. Kids steal alcohol from their parents. I get it.
They found him and put him in rehab. He AWOL'd there by climbing the fence, stole alcohol, brought it back, and when one of the counselors tried to take it from him, he assaulted them.
Spent time in juvie. Was given the option to go back to rehab, but refused. Spent a little more time in juvie. Got placed into a higher level group home out of our area. AWOL'd there almost immediately for over a week, somehow got to another city 50 miles away, and was finally picked up by the police. He refused to go back to the higher level group home and said the only place he'd go back to was the one in our area. They put him back there.
Can you see where this is going?
He AWOL'd again on Monday. We have been very careful to lock our doors and windows. We came home to find the screens torn and bent on several of our windows. He'd let out all of our animals (I run a micro-farm) and shut them out of their pens. Our neighbor was nice enough to grab our dog, who was running willy nilly in the streets. difficult child took two of our hens (I have no idea why). I drove around looking for them, but they are still missing.
I am pretty unhappy, to say the least. My husband maintains that difficult child will not go as far as to break the windows. I'm skeptical. He seems to be escalating his behavior. I know when he was in a foster home less than a year ago (they thought he was ready to transition down a couple of levels), and the foster mom locked him out because he was getting aggressive - he broke one of her doors to get back inside. husband hasn't been reading the court reports like I have. They make him upset, so I read them and summarize the relevant points.
My husband is not interested in activating our alarm system. Does anyone have any theft-deterrent suggestions? Our dog is 10lbs soaking wet, and she is familiar with difficult child, so she's not a lot of help. I'm seriously considering moving the things I value most out of the house. Bought a padlock for the backyard gate. I know he'll just climb over, but this might deter him from taking any more of our animals.
Half the time we don't even know when he's AWOL because the social worker keeps neglecting to inform us. And yes, we've complained to her supervisor - which seemed to have an effect for only one subsequent AWOL.