progress

Being rejected by the treatment center was a wake up call for all of us.  The reason being......since T was turned down because he was clean and for his negative attitude - there are no more "excuses" for bad behavior.  The next step, should he continue, would be that his PO violate him.  Which would mean he'd be placed in a youth correctional facility for about 6 months until a place for treatment is open, which is run by the state.  And why to I say a wake up call for "us"? Us includes his parents.  We have been trying to get across to him that these behaviors (particularly in school) for quite sometime but in the back of our minds we were thinking there COULD be a possibility that he would be sent to treatment.  I guess we weren't forceful enough and/or he wasn't willing to listen.   Well - this rejection made my husband and I really "get in his face" and own up to his less than good behavior.  All around his attitude has improved but, lately, he was reverting back to some of them.  And maybe it was the threat of treatment that made him act out.  Who knows?  All I know is that T went and apologized to the assistant principal yesterday and here, at home, we had a productive "conversation" that I felt we made headway on.  I know things aren't going to be perfect but I am not expecting that, it's progress NOT perfection.