Messages By: derevna33

I am a parent of my only son going to prison 11years ago of a similar situation.  He was sentenced to 5 to 10 years at the age of 19.  He served only 2 1/2 years.  He went into a small grocery store/service station with an older man and robbed an elderly woman at gun point.  To this day I still cannot believe my son did this.  But he did.  And we too were not aware anything was going on.  He was ditching computer school, then once he left school, he wouldn't keep a job.  We went to many services looking and begging for help for our son's behavior, but we were over and over turned down for help!  We were told he was over 18 and we had NO RIGHT to do anything.  He was an adult.  My son was diagnosed with ADD in 3rd grade.  He had few friends and was very niave also.  He fell in love with a 14 year old. And that is when the trouble began.  We too stood by our son's side through it all.  It was the hardest thing for me to leave him at the prison for our first visit.  Prison changed who my son was.  To this very day, it has been a difficult journey for our son. He can't find a job to support his family.  And when he does find one, he has trouble keeping one.  Until you go through something like this with your child, you can not understand what it does to the family.   Let alone that your child is in prison with murderers, rapists, child molesters, and worse.  My son deserved to be punished for his bad choices, but these parents won't sleep at night.  I didn't.  My son won't talk about what went on in prison.  All I know is that he will never be the same!  Don't condemm the parents, Dr. Phil and society!!  We do the best we can. Social Services let us down when we did try to get help!!!  My best go out to her parents.  And my prayers will be with them too!!   What these kids do is very wrong.  They do deserve to be punished.  But prison I feel is not always the answer.   Just a parent!!!!!!