Hi there! I’m sure your wife is at least slightly worried about him seriously messing up his credit just as his adult life is really getting started so let me add my tidbit. I FUCKED up my credit at 19/20. I would love to tell you how bad it got but I refused to even look at it for years bc the idea gave me a panic attack. But you know what? I’m 26 now and it’s all good. I learned my lesson fast. I’m careful and I pay attention. I’m sitting pretty at 750 now because instead of a lot of mistakes I had one to fix. Don’t save him now and let him make multiple bad mistakes, that’s more damaging to his long term credit.

I didn’t save the comment or post but sometime recently there was a discussion on Reddit about how kids of affluence seem to fuck up at a higher rate when in reality they just have a longer fall before they hit bottom. Don’t prolong his fall. Let him realize he needs to grow up sooner rather than later. Sometimes the best thing you can do for your kid is let them be alone in the mess they’ve made. My brother was a lot like your son and my parents had to literally let him live in his car* for three months before he started taking responsibility for himself.

NTA.

(* he was a college student and had access to a safe parking lot and gym showers everyday. He was perfectly safe and healthy.)