Ex husband and all his family are extremely homophobic. They are vocal about this if they see it … in an immature, snide, disgusted kind of way, rather than a punch them in the face kind of way.
Teenage son is still very immature when it comes to anything related to even seeing someone kissing, and hasn’t “come out” but I think (and his pastoral support who have been involved for other issues) he is emerging as either bi-sexual or homosexual. He’s mid Secondary School age and has had simple school type “romances” with both boys and girls, which is generally barely more than text conversations and the odd walk home from school.
DS attends court ordered contact for a day a fortnight, not so much forced anymore, but definitely more out of routine than love.
Having a grown up conversation with ex is out of the question, he won’t even reply to a text.
So do I tell son that this is how that side of the family will react, or wait until he finds out for himself? I feel like even starting this conversation will imply to my son that there is something wrong with his choices. But I don’t want his dad to see him messaging a boy or something, and react badly while son is at his house. Either way, I’m so worried about what this will do to his self esteem and confidence.
I suppose it’s also possible that son has seen some of this behaviour already, which is just going to complicate any decision making that my son does, but I’m not sure I can do anything about that, although this worries me too.
I don’t know. I just don’t want to cause any lasting damage by dealing with this in the wrong way. Parenting teens is tough!
Teenage son is still very immature when it comes to anything related to even seeing someone kissing, and hasn’t “come out” but I think (and his pastoral support who have been involved for other issues) he is emerging as either bi-sexual or homosexual. He’s mid Secondary School age and has had simple school type “romances” with both boys and girls, which is generally barely more than text conversations and the odd walk home from school.
DS attends court ordered contact for a day a fortnight, not so much forced anymore, but definitely more out of routine than love.
Having a grown up conversation with ex is out of the question, he won’t even reply to a text.
So do I tell son that this is how that side of the family will react, or wait until he finds out for himself? I feel like even starting this conversation will imply to my son that there is something wrong with his choices. But I don’t want his dad to see him messaging a boy or something, and react badly while son is at his house. Either way, I’m so worried about what this will do to his self esteem and confidence.
I suppose it’s also possible that son has seen some of this behaviour already, which is just going to complicate any decision making that my son does, but I’m not sure I can do anything about that, although this worries me too.
I don’t know. I just don’t want to cause any lasting damage by dealing with this in the wrong way. Parenting teens is tough!