I started drinking my pal's mother's homemade wine at 13
Was smoking weed pretty much daily shortly afterwards, took 3 hits of LSD a weekend for about a year aged 15 and hung out with crusty vagrant types who lived in buses and army lorries; I'd switched to ecstasy and raves by the time I hit 17 and by 19 had begun to take cocaine on a regular basis.

But I turned out just fine, you've definitely got nothing to worry about.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:06, 3 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

OH FUCK!

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:08, Reply)

Despite all that
I managed to get a reasonable degree, my own flat and a reasonably well-paid (if grievous) job. I have a fantastic, really close and entirely functional relationship with all of my family and am actually in reasonable nick, so it's not all bad news.

Mind you this may be because I am A FUCKING HARDNUT: plenty of lesser mortals have fallen by the wayside along the way.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:13, Reply)

Oh mate, if she turns out like you I'll be...
Quite chuffed.
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:15, Reply)

*searches for mouseover text*

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:18, Reply)

Are you of Border Reiver stock by any chance?

(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:26, Reply)

Hahaha I am precisely that!
That's slightly unnerved me.

We were the top end, though: Wardens of the Marches or somesuch.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:27, Reply)

Hm. Poacher turned gamekeeper by any chance?
Just piecing together various bits of info you've let drop. I could make a guess but I won't. This is more fun.

You could be a Tweedie relative. That made me LoL (snort really).
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:42, Reply)

You are bang on the money (apart from the Tweedie bit).

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 11:02, Reply)

I also am of Reiver stock. By way of the midlands, lancashire and the eastern march.
A little known family but absolute villains.

Your ancestors probably killed mine. Or were killed, as was the fashion in those days.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 13 Apr 2010, 11:13, Reply)

I wa to to be reiver stock too
Where do I sign up?
(The Boy Monders I have ginger bits in my beard., Tue 13 Apr 2010, 14:06, Reply)

The Borders, Monders old chum.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 14:14, Reply)

That craft and hobby outlet?
Sounds a bit shirter mcshirty that. Don't think I'll bother. Cheers though!
(The Boy Monders I have ginger bits in my beard., Tue 13 Apr 2010, 15:50, Reply)

My first drunken outing was
facilitated by me stealing a finger of every spirit in my parents cupboard, so that they would notice and mixing it all together.

I did a sick :O=
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:09, Reply)

Many regrets, to be honest
Started drinking and having sex at 13, sniffing petrol and other inhalants at 14, magic mushrooms at 15 and it all went downhill from there.

Coincidentally, i was also gonna start teenagers thread. My son will be 14 in July and has already run the gamut of teenagery things, and I am keeping a very beady eye on him. When i was growing up, being a teenager, i lived with my gran and granda, who where a generation away from me and my exploits. With me and my son, I know exactly the sort of shit that is going on in his mind and can preempt the type of caper he will be getting up to and hopefully corrale him into a more mature way of dealing with things, people and situations he will inevitably find himself in.

Went home yesterday to find the back door unlocked, the bathroom window wide open and 2 fag ends in the toilet. I phoned him and he claimed it was his pal who had smoked them. I countered with he could not prove this and I couldn't prove he DID have one of the fags himself. His belligerence was astounding, however, no internet for a week will hopefully cool his jets.

Teenagers = a right royal pain in the fucking arse.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 10:24, Reply)

Good luck mate
I am afeared of what I may have to expect from my 'broken home, raised in the East End' daughter. Petrified.
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 11:03, Reply)

Kidnap her and remove her to your Northern Fastness.
Southern pansies would not dare follow you.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 13 Apr 2010, 11:07, Reply)

I think the main thing is to raise them well in the first place
Instilling in them a sense of self and the difference between right and wrong is obvious stuff, but you have to be committed and keep to your guns. I have been telling him since Primary 1 that he is responsible for his own actions, and the sooner he understands this the sooner he will grow up.

Therefore, yesterday, when i confronted him about the fag ends and he says "It wasn't my fault, it was X who smoked them", my head just dipped. I was wasting my time it seemed when I said that it was in fact HIM who allowed his pal to smoke then in the house and that it indeed was COMPLETELY his fault. There was a flicker of recognition, then it faded, to be replaced by "It wasn't my fault", in a slightly more whining voice. I just closed my door at that point.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 11:25, Reply)

From experience
the 'quietly disappointed' stance is infinitely more effective than 'clearly angry'....
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 14:20, Reply)

Yes, that worked for me
However, the vast majority of the time my son refuses to accept that X situation is clearly his fault. Eg, losing his keys, going out leaving the back door open, 'big boys' forcing him to drink a can of cider up the park. It is as if he is an innocent spectator to the gradual unfolding of his own life.
(Cancer Joy was short lived, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 14:33, Reply)