Going on a course certainly helped one mother in Stockton-on-Tees.

Daniel has been involved in more cases of violence than his mother Helen can remember.

We are not short of money so what he has asked for he has always got

Mother

She resented the fact that she was the one who was given the parenting order - she felt she was being punished when it was Daniel who was offending.

But - like almost all those who have been on such courses - it helped her.

"You can talk about problems with someone who has been through exactly the same thing," she said.

"You are in the same predicament as them - they are not judgemental."

Spoilt

Her family were, however.

"They say it's down to you. My family were brought up 'Give him a good clip'."

Instead she had been doing the opposite.

"I spoilt him, gave him his own way.

"We are not short of money so what he has asked for he has always got."

Off the 'gear'

Daughter Janine, 18, said it was not Helen's fault that she had turned to heroin at the age of 14.

Janine: Not mum's fault

"A couple of my friends from school had been dabbling in the gear," she said.

"I went out with them one night and tried it, liked it and from there I was taking it all the time."

After she began injecting she got help, was given methadone and - despite occasional "dabbling" - has not used heroin for two years.

Now she just drinks too much.

"Everyone's got a mind of their own," she said.

"I was brought up well and taught well and always had everything I wanted and look at the road I went down.

Shock

"It just happened: it's just the person you become yourself, it's not your parents' fault."

Daniel doesn't want to get out of bed to talk about parenting.

But Helen said her "homework" from the parenting course she attended had been an eye-opener for him.

"It shocked him, what I was writing down about how I was feeling.

"He used to get me upset. I cried but I never showed it in front of him. I let him know that.

Teenagers

"I hated him. I actually got to the point where - I know it's awful to say - I loved him, but I hated the person he had become."

She thinks it would have been of benefit if she had had the option of a parenting course when he was younger - except that he only "went off the rails" when he moved to secondary school.

"He still has his odd moments where he can be angry - but that's just a teenager," his mother said.

"Hormones," she added.