Having a teenager refuse to get up & go to school can be a lot more difficult to deal with than suggesting they need extra time, & you should go to work late. One of my sons at the age of 15 started point blank refusing to go to school, refusing even to get out of bed. I tried everything I could think of, every approach from pleading to bribery, negotiation to removing quilt, thru trying to talk with him when he was in bed & out, changing his diet & talking to the school. I had letters from the Educational Welfare Officer threatening to take me to court. I told her that any suggestions that I had not already tried as to how I could get my son to get up & go to school would be welcome & if she thought she could get him to get up & go to school she was welcome to try, but sending unrealistic & threatening letters was distinctly unhelpful. The whole family tried family therapy & we had social worker involvement. My ex (by the way) had moved a couple of hundred miles away , & was no use at all having chosen to not even leave a phone contact number. Although he had repeatedly denied it, the initial problem had been one of bullying at school, but by the time the extent of the problem had been uncovered (resulting in 2 of the bullies being moved schools & 1 being expelled) the damage had been done & my son would not go to school at all. He eventually attended a program for school refusers which had limited accademic support which meant that he couldn't take the 10 GCSE's he would have taken (& had a good chance of passing well) which was not ideal but at least he was doing something.

I still don't really know why my son behaved the way he did, although bullying may have been involved at the start I'm sure there were other things going on which influenced his behaviour. One thing I do know & that it's a lot harder to have sole responsibility than to share that with another parent. & Whether you call it having a life of your own, or networking, or maintaining friendships with other adults, it may not reduce the responsibility but it does help you maintain a sense of perspective which is very important when interacting with teenagers.