I stood up to her and gave her limits...

Dear Mr. Hutten,

Thank you for saving my family. When my 13 year old daughter turned into an angry out of control person last spring I had no idea of how to handle her. Nor did the therapists I consulted. I thought I might have to put her into a residential treatment program.

I found your website and downloaded your book. I refer to it as "the Bible." My daughter's behavior turned around the instant I stood up to her and gave her limits. The change was amazing and all for the good. It has helped me to be clear, less reactive, calmer and more loving. And a lot firmer. If a situation arises I feel that I know what to do. What action to take. (Usually: Ground her!)

In other words, you are a genius! I am deeply grateful.

J. B.

Online Parent Support

Boys Ranch?

Thank you for your telephone conversation with me today on Sunday and helping me with getting the online version; somehow just hearing from the real person who began this program was a sense of hope that this may be my first successful door to help my troubled 15 year old teenager.

I have contemplated and contacted twice The Boys Ranch for troubled teens in the last 2 years; due to mixed reasons such as unsupport of my husband (doesn't want to send our child away), the on / off times of my child with seemingly better behavior only to get in trouble again, and myself torn between to send him or not are all reasons I have not sent him their for help. But things have only escalated with him; this place is a free facility, as I do not have the finances otherwise for somewhere else. I can't remember if there is a minimal time that your child has to be there once enrolled or not; I just felt this would be a very controlled environment with one on one adult supervision and counseling because right now he resides in a very disruptive home environment where my husband and I have serious marital problems (that is a whole other topic I am trying to make a decision about) and also sending him here I thought would help him realize that he his hanging around people and friends at school that influence in all the wrong ways, including doing drugs, taking over the home, constant disrespect, round-about- death threats on me, running away, likes to mix things to make things blow up, plays with fire, shoves me, uses his physical force with at times, manipulates my child safe program on the computer by hacking my administrator password, and as had numerous downloaded adult porn sites/videos on the computer which I had the computer restored to wipe that out; these are a few of the things I can mention that I am dealing with.

Could you please give me your input if you think it would be beneficial to send my teenager to The Boys Ranch or not in addition to your program? Thank you once again.

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I don't think it will hurt anything for your son to go to a ranch; however, you should know that - unless you make changes on your end - your son's behavior, when he returns home, will be the same as before. "Positive change" that occurs in ranches, camps, wilderness programs, etc. has no longevity.

Mark

My Out-of-Control Teen