Ok, here's one for you. I have NO affiliation with WWASP and never will. And I have even considered some of these claims seriously.
Yes, I agree. I see a lot of claims on here of abuse with little detail as to what the abuse was. I also see people decrying a system that in some ways, seems less harmful than the alternatives these teens were heading for.
So you tell me....WHAT DOES A PARENT DO when their child is on a destructive path??? WHAT?
Wait for them to be hauled off to jail? I'm sure they will get real special treatment there. Wait for them to drop out of school because they are failing every class? Wait for them to overdose on the drugs they are using to self-medicate? Let them abuse their families? Because THAT, my dear friend, is what happens every day in this country. EVERY DAMN DAY!
And I am ONE parent who is NOT going to let that happen to my son. I am exhausting every other alternative to an RTC, but if it comes to it, I will send him. And I'm giving him the choice by asking him to comply with simple things, like a reasonable curfew (for example, it is 3:00 a.m. here and he was supposed to be home at 10:00...do you think that is safe for a 14 year old?).
I don't abuse my child. I don't neglect him. But he abuses and neglects me. Do you have a solution to this. How about I just throw him out on the street and let him make his own decisions. Would that be a better solution? Or how about I keep letting him go in the direction he's going and when the school calls me for the umpteenth time to tell me he is suspended I just say, "gee whiz, I guess there's really nothing I can do except to just wait it out."
And don't, DON'T, shoot back a reply suggesting that I haven't tried everything, or that I don't love my child enough, or that I must be doing something wrong, because thank you, I already lie awake every night trying to figure out what I must be doing wrong.
I love my son, and I am going to get him help.