What the f**k is wrong with this boy?
Every Christmas we have some issues with our now 15-year-old son and this year is no different. My mother-in-law was keeping a Tracfone smartphone for him, which she was given by another relative. I told our son that his grandmother has a phone for him back in September, which he could have with service if his grades improved to an average level, no D’s or F’s, something he is very capable of.
My wife and I had recently given up on C or above grades in all subjects, as we’ve had a 5-year battle with poor grades and a lack of effort by our son in correcting those poor grades. Giving him back his video games, which we had previously taken away because of his refusal to put in the effort to correct his grades or accept help to improve his situation, you can read about this in my blog from a few days ago.
We had decided to allow our son to also have the phone with service, so he would have a way to contact us when he stays at home while my wife, daughter and I go out, as he often does not want to participate in family activities; and we do not have a landline phone in our home. The plan was to surprise him on Christmas day with the phone, but he had made another bad choice, so this did not happen.
That bad choice was to steal the phone from the drawer in his grandmother’s dresser a month ago. We had tracked it back from Email’s in his linked Google account to November 23, as the first time he used the phone, which was the Saturday after the Friday, he had stayed over at his grandmother’s house.
This is a disturbing pattern of behavior in 2019, in which he stole my old Galaxy S4 from my office desk drawer in February, then later in the year, he stole his 9-year-old sister’s Galaxy tablet, which we thought she had misplaced, and now stealing from his grandmother. We are so incredibly disappointed as we never raised him to steal, he could have most things he wanted if he just pulled his weight in school, we don’t ask much, we want him to achieve all C’s or above, it’s not like we’re asking for straight A’s.
I don’t understand why he does it, he always gets busted, he might get away with it for a month or two, but eventually, I spot a device on my network that shouldn’t be there. In this case, I knew there should not be an LG device connected since I switched to a Pixel 4. When we noticed my mother-in-law’s phone was missing, I logged onto my network and there it was, LgElectr Android listed in connected devices.
I don’t know what he was thinking, the gig was clearly up, but after discovering the phone missing, while at my mother-in-law’s house, we asked him directly about whether he had the phone and he lied to me, his mother and grandmother, promising he did not take it. Which at this point we knew was a lie, either that or he had stolen my old LG V20, which I recently replaced, in either case he was in deep trouble.
The bottom line is he has lost all privileges at home, the Internet is cut off to his room, so no video games, television or streaming media, and no more treats like chips or soda’s, for an indefinite period of time. He is 15 years old, he does not get a pass, he tried the waterworks on his grandmother, which is a common tactic for him, to get out of trouble, I’ve seen it so much over the years, I’m not buying it, I put my foot down and told him to stop with the bullshit, he will have to suck it up and accept his punishment.
I’m seriously concerned with his actions, how long will it be before he starts stealing outside of the family? from friends in school or even from shops, because he feels he is entitled. This is literally what he told us when he got busted for stealing my old Galaxy S4. One thing is for sure, if he continues down this road, I’m not going to bail him out when the police are inevitably involved, due to his entitlement syndrome.