Here's a good story..... S19 went out on New Year's Eve to a friend's house... I don't know the whole story but it seems that the friend ened up owning the house through fortunate circumstances rather than any actual responsibility.... Anyway, about the time he got there, the neighbors across the street called them, and said that if all of the cars that didn't belong there weren't gone in 20 minutes, they were going to call the police. I don't know if everyone left, but S19 came home. I'm sure there was going to be underage drinking going on, at least. He knew better than to get caught up in trouble he didn't need to be in. (I'm sure he would have been drinking, too. He was planning to spend the night. Got to pick the right battles!) So, it seems that giving him a certain degree of freedom does seem to encourage a certain degree of responsibility. As your son starts to earn back the freedom, I expect the same thing could well happen with him!
