Contemplating my options.... 

First of all, my wife finally admits to me that my son is out of control.  He has been with a new group of friends this year and they are bad news.  When he first started hanging with them, I was worried, but he assured me that he was the good one of the bunch and he knew right from wrong and I shouldn't worry.  Well, they've dragged him down, again and again.  He was caught stealing cigs from the local convenience store.  Because he's 15 (almost 16) and a big kid, they called the cops in.  By the time my wife got hold of me, our son had been sitting there for over an hour.  They cuffed him and had him in a back room.  Luckily, I knew the one cop and the shopkeeper decided to not press charges and he was let go...

I was so upset that I could not even look at him.  My wife agreed that we would all go back to my place to talk.  Of course, we got into a huge fight with everything being my fault.  However, she did finally come around and agreed to let him live with me for a while to try to work things out.  First of all, stealing is definitely a crime and secondly, he knows he's not supposed to be smoking! 

So, he's been here with me and it has NOT been easy.  This is not the same kid from last summer. He has changed so much and I can't believe that it's just the pending divorce that has caused it all.  He went back to counseling, which is still too early to tell if it's working.

Of course, word got around town about it and now everyone I know is telling me stories about things my son and his friends had been doing.  Part of me wishes they would have told me sooner, before it got his out of hand... but realistically... would I have believed them?  I mean seriously.  Our first response when someone says something bad about our kids is to deny it and get pissed...