Teenagers!

When does worry and anger turn to "should i call the police"
My 17yr old went to a friends' last night and said he'd be back at midday. By 5 i'm starting to stress, have been trying to ring most of the day and it goes straight to answer phone. He eventually turned up at 9, having missed dinner and not letting me know, when he'd be back. How long would you leave it, before you got the old bill involved? Would they think it a waste of time, if he'd just not let you know where he was?

I would start to worry after 3 days going by my own past

I'm afraid to say once a teenager reaches 16 the police will only register it as a grade 3 and will come and take a missing from home log after a few hours of being missing, it's not until 12+ hours that the police will up grade it depending on the circumstances you have told them when the report was taken.

If either of my daughters did that , it would be the neighbors calling the police about 5 min after they they rocked back up to the house.
My wife would not hesitate to knock 7 bells of the brown stuff out of them !

Originally Posted by zebbyzulu

If either of my daughters did that , it would be the neighbors calling the police about 5 min after they they rocked back up to the house.
My wife would not hesitate to knock 7 bells of the brown stuff out of them !

damned right. There was only one firm rule when we was growing up-be back when you say or bloody call.

I thought all teenagers had mobile phones these days? If not, it could be an idea to get him a cheap one so you don't have to worry as much. He could even do chores around the house to earn credit to pay for it.

What was his excuse for not contacting you? Whatever they do, that's the unforgivable bit.

You have a 17yo? but you look so young...

Don't cook for him for about 3 days. Just expect him to cater for himself.

When he wants to know why tell him "that lack of contact makes you forget about him" or, "if he'd told you he was going to need feeding . . ."

Originally Posted by Trumps

I thought all teenagers had mobile phones these days? If not, it could be an idea to get him a cheap one so you don't have to worry as much. He could even do chores around the house to earn credit to pay for it.

My two* have mobile phones, which I pay for and they still don't answer or they forget to charge them, or that manage to blitz their way through 5,000 text each plus minutes, I got them to install whatsapp simply so if they ran out of credit they could contact me via the interweb. Battery going flat is their most used excuse, but they will insist on having smartphones where the battery won't last all day especially when they are on Facebook and texting all day long.

I am trying to get them to install 'Lookout' on their phones, obviously for insurance purposes, but it will also allow me to trace them via GPS, purely as a by product of the insuance concerns I have


* I know, who'd have thunk I was old enough to have teenage kids, I was a child groom

Originally Posted by bikerbird

When does worry and anger turn to "should i call the police"
My 17yr old went to a friends' last night and said he'd be back at midday. By 5 i'm starting to stress, have been trying to ring most of the day and it goes straight to answer phone. He eventually turned up at 9, having missed dinner and not letting me know, when he'd be back. How long would you leave it, before you got the old bill involved? Would they think it a waste of time, if he'd just not let you know where he was?

Isn't that about his responsibility and your discipline?
What does it have to do with the police ?

He does have a mobile but i couldn't get through. No signal, he said! He has lost his computer and i phone and is grounded until exams are done. Apart from beating the crap out of him, i don't know what more to do. It all very well telling him that he's to contact me. In real life, not much you can do till they get home.
It doesn't have anything to do with the police, i was just asking when other people would start to get concerned. If i can't get in touch with him, when would i know something was wrong? Hence the question of, how long would you leave it to maybe contact police, to say he was missing. I'm assuming most people would be more concerned, if he was a she!

Originally Posted by bikerbird

He does have a mobile but i couldn't get through. No signal, he said! He has lost his computer and i phone and is grounded until exams are done. Apart from beating the crap out of him, i don't know what more to do. It all very well telling him that he's to contact me. In real life, not much you can do till they get home.
It doesn't have anything to do with the police, i was just asking when other people would start to get concerned. If i can't get in touch with him, when would i know something was wrong? Hence the question of, how long would you leave it to maybe contact police, to say he was missing. I'm assuming most people would be more concerned, if he was a she!

If you have now got his iphone, install Lookout, it can turn the phone into a GPS tracker, you can also turn the phone into a siren My teenagers are girls and they wonder why I go radio when they don't keep in contact with their mother.

Originally Posted by Yambo

Don't cook for him for about 3 days. Just expect him to cater for himself.

When he wants to know why tell him "that lack of contact makes you forget about him" or, "if he'd told you he was going to need feeding . . ."

Like it. Stored for future reference. Although oddly enough, T.Minor's studied delinquency does not extend to this - he's pretty good at getting in touch if he's going to be late.

When I had to restrain him from going out to kill his mate who he had fallen out with and I couldn't hold him much longer. That's when we called the police. He was bigger and stronger than me and he really would have lost it if he had got out.