Mobile phones...Whos number do you have?

It all started one night when my son went to a mates 17th party..I dropped him off and told him to take things lightly...Have a good time this was about three in the afternoon...He sent me a few text through the night to tell me things were okay and then a text came through at about eight telling me to call him please...I rang him and we talked he seemed to have gone down a bit in his mood...He had obviously been drinking and was feeling blue for some reason..I asked him if he wanted to come home and told him I thought it was in the best interest for him to come home and be with us or maybe I could go in and chat with him...He said no and we chatted until he said he felt a bit better...His medication for his mental illness leaves him able to come out of those Lows he gets into more regular than most teens so I got off the phone and he said thanks mum..I love you... I layed back down and settled in to watch tv with my husband...

A little while later the mobile went off and I opened the phone and read the message...It read "I am sorry mum, Just remember I will always love you"...I felt sick in the gut and instantly picked up the home phone to call him...The only thing I heard was the operator on the phone telling the phone I was calling was switched off or not in a mobile area...I called his mates phone as I thought his might have gone flat...His mate looked around for him and couldn't find him straight away...He told me he would go for a look and looked for what seemed like ages when someone told him that he had left the party to the bush across the road...By this time his best female friend was in tow and the two of them walked over calling him...All of a sudden I could hear Get down mate and was told by his friend he is okay call me back...

I said okay five minutes on I got a call from his female friend crying...You better come in she said..He needs you and you need to be with him...I could hear my son crying in the background as I heard her talk...His male mate took the phone and then told me that he had been up in a tree when they found him and they were chatting to him...After a bit they realised he had a belt around his neck...He told them to go away and when they didn't He just jumped...Saying I am sorry on the way down...When the pressure was applied to the belt it jerked him and the belt actually snapped leaving a bruised and pain filled teenager in a heap under the tree...

This would have to be one of the hardest things I have had to live with for the last couple of weeks since it happened...He was lucky for the belt breaking he was lucky he had friends there at that time...Since the whole incident things have been hard for all of us...

What advice do you ask is in all of this? Well there is a few pieces of advice here for all parents to read and remember...Most of us have mobiles and so do our teens...All of their friends have mobiles too...I have given my mobile number to alot of my sons friends and I have most of theirs...They don't mind and I don't mind them having mine...If your kids are going to do something they don't want you knowing about they will just switch it off but not all their friends will...No matter how old your kids are you as their parent have a right to know where they are and who with...

I know this is an extreme case to get my point across to parents the importance of sharing this information but this is something that made me think and I am ready to share this with all of you... The next piece of advice I wanted to share with you all is be aware that your kids will experiement and that is a normal part of growing up but the one thing I want to share is tell them the effects things like alcohol and drugs can have on their bodies...In my sons case he felt off so wanted to have drinks because it makes him feel better takes the troubles away for a while...But does it? Alcohol is a depressant and there for on your way down from your feeling good you can get lower than you have felt before and do things that you wouldn't normally do...Not only think of suicide but also have no inhabitions...Sleep around and do all sorts of things that in the morning  you will not be too proud of...

This is something I wanted to share with you all...Hope this can help someone on their way to raising teens to make it into the adult years...

Take care all
Cheers
Angie