<p>I didn’t have any alcohol or drug issues at all with D. Her crowd wasn’t into it at all. It’s tougher with S. Most kids he knows are into one or the other or both. He has shared with me about how difficult the peer pressure is. We have established codes to get him out of sticky situations. His friends know that he isn’t interested in being around substance abusers, so they are usually pretty cool with that. However, I have had to go pick him up at odd hours of the night during sleepovers, or whenever it’s necessary. Texting is very helpful for that purpose. Saturday night, I stayed awake until 2:30 a.m., parked on the family room couch - S told me that one of the two boys spending the night really wanted to go out back & smoke a joint. I told him to let the kid know that I don’t allow anyone to leave the house, and that I would absolutely take him home & tell his parents exactly what he was doing. At 4 a.m., my H switched places with me. We won’t be having that young man as an overnight guest anymore. It sure is hard to raise teens sometimes.</p>