The Prodigal Son

Jamie's back. I got a call Thursday night from a mission in Branford (smallish kind of town about 30 min drive from here - their claim to fame is that Wayne Gretzky is from there). Seems these nice churchy people were going to drive Jamie and would that be ok? I told them the story of Jamie and him leaving home etc. so I told them they could bring him here but I couldn't guarantee that he would be staying. He arrived about 11 on Thursday night and we talked to him for about 2 hours and he agreed to all my rules etc so I let him stay. Who knows if it will last but at least he seems to have found out that his "friends" on the street don't really give a shit about him. Last night was our first fight post-return. He told me that he was going out to clean the yard (I don't have a problem with that) and he buggered off to go and hang out with the losers that started all this trouble in the first place. He was only gone for about 10 minutes but the point was that he had been TOLD that he was not hang around with the pot-head losers if he was going to live here. So now we have agreed to have weekly meetings about his progress and what he needs to do to regain trust around here. He can't seem to get it through his head that I don't have great faith in him at the moment and that Chez Mom isn't a hotel that he can come and go from without any rules. I must have failed somewhere as a parent and keep wracking my brain trying to find new ways to make things better. That boy is going to give me ulcers.