oh no - was this the hairdresser friend that she was going to move in with? Way to burn bridges! Poor friend.

Lime - so if you are aware of the background I'm even more surprised that would say words to effect that it's getting too hard so the kid gets handballed. And who on earth said this child was unwanted? Why do you need to use such language?

If it was as easy as sitting down and working things out as a family, don't you think this would have been done already? Don't you think every (well most) parent of a teen would not have tried that? Several times? What happens when that scenario fails (as it often does)?

Fi - the mum thing could well be true - but by the same token a friends DD had the same type of mother and she chose not to take that path. Bugger her, you just want to shake them sometimes and make them SEE! But you can't make teens SEE anything xoxoxoo