Originally Posted by
The Atheist
Ha!
I'll tell you a funny story about that. These two teenage dicks were my son and a friend of his who was running wild, so we thought we'd have a go at straightening him out. We were a few years too late in his case, and he turned out to be quite a hopeless case.
Once he'd flown his true colours, my main mission was to keep the little twerps apart as much as possible.
They were both 17 at the time and I was their legal guardian, so to speak, even though his mate had been kicked out.
I typed up a letter to the effect that I was banning them from associating and would dob them in to the police if they found together. I had a Justice of the Peace countersign my signature and served them each with a copy.
While they were sickened by it, the thought that it had no legal weight whatsoever never occurred to them, and that the JP's signature was purely to witness my signature went right over their heads.
Teenagers are easy because they think they're smarter than you, while in the real world, we know we're smarter than them.
So far, my plan worked - they stayed apart for the eight months until they were 18 and my boy moved into somewhat different circles, so while they hang out, they aren't the centre of each other's universe any more.