DJ, Thanks for the ideas, difficult child really doesn't have a clue what his life is going to be like when he gets out. He really will have very little choices at first. MH is working with his PO and are really trying to button him down to getting the help he needs. I have the impression PO is going to try to make all MH's suggestions a parole requirement. I do not want difficult child to end up back in prison because he didn't do what he was supposed to do. So i am trying to gently place the idea in his head that he needs to do what they tell him so he can once again be free to make his own decisions as to what he is going to do with his life.
Janet and DL, What you are suggesting is a good idea for many difficult child's but I am not sure it is the right way to go with mine. He is more like an autism type who fixates on something and it then becomes an obsession. Suggesting something might come about at a vage time in the future is like telling him it definately will happen and then he cannot get it out of is head. That makes it very hard when you want to give hope but avoid the stubborn obsessive nature that usually gets him in trouble.
Merris, Thank you for your input. I agree it is so hard when they have a propensity for intense obsessing.
The bottom line is that even those things that are real possibilities for him are not something that he can do immediately upon release. He has many things that will be demanded of him and that he will have to do if he is to stay out of prison. He must make them his number one priority. I will not weigh in heavy on the military thing as it is something that will resolve itself when/if he goes to a recruiter. I am not sure who he has been talking to about this. Another problem is that difficult child seems normal at first. Consequently many people, thinking he is just a normal kid gone wrong, make suggestions that are not viable possibilities for him. I guess I just really don't want my family to suffer with another arrest and therefore want to keep nudging him toward attainable goals and hopefully make him think they are his own ideas at the same time. -RM
