you're right on OverLordd, don't let these bad parents get you down. I really respect what you're doing.
The point is this: There are too many cases of abuse and wrongful deaths that have occured at wilderness camps and teen treatment facilities.
Parents don't bother to intervene in their child's lives until the behavior becomes a threat, i.e. crashing cars, selling drugs, getting in fights. A good parent is one who respects their child, and their child's privacy, but who knows their child well enough to recognize the first signs that something is wrong. Any parent that makes a point of talking to their son or daughter at length everyday, keeping up with their his/her school activities, who their friends are, and keeping in contact with the child's friends parents, is a parent that is on top of things, and when problems come up (all teenagers try to rebel in one way or another, that's just normal), but when any problems come up, the parent will know their child and the child's peers well enough to be able to nip the problem in the bud. But these parents who are too busy living their own lifes, or too stressed and tired to really bother being active in their kid's life, are just asking for a "troubled teen."
You should not have or adopt a child unless you are willing to make a life-long commitment to stay by that child's side no matter what it takes, and even if your child bores you with talk about their interests, friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, music, clothes, school, sports, whatever, you should still listen with an open ear and take note of everything your child tells you, and not just say "uh huh" and "okay" because kids pick up on that, and then they start to keep things to themselves, and that is how parents lose control of their children.
