My 7 year old son has been acting out lately. I'll give a little back story...

His father and I were childhood sweethearts and he was my first. I cannot honestly say that at any time our relationship was a good or healthy one and I cannot for the life of me tell you why I stayed with him. We moved a lot bc of his alcoholism and drug use. He spent his money on these and I was unable to work bc we had only one vehicle... the whole 5 years or so that we were together.

Our son was born and about a year or so later we separated. About a year later he was arrested for fighting and transferred to our home parish for dui's and aggravated assault. He was abusive in every way and when my b.i.l. stood up for me during one of his drunken rages he stabbed him. So now it's been 4 years.

I am now with a great guy that my son loves dearly, he's in a good school, I would say he has been slightly spoiled. All of a sudden he has started misbehaving. When I say misbehaving, I mean totally transformed from my sweet and loving child to my extremely untrustworthy child.

He is acting up in class and has notes sent home all the time. I caught him trying to steal $20, then $10 and yesterday it was $2. I found out that he has been taking change out of the change jar foe I don't even know how long. He lies so much it's ridiculous, about anything all the time.

I have tried talking to him, his step dad has talked to him and his father, well, he talks to him but never tries to tell him right from wrong.

Yesterday all of his games were "stolen" by my mother in law to try and show him how it feels to be stolen from and he's been given chores to do everyday to earn snack money for school.

Can anyone give me ideas on how to solve these problems? I have tried to raise my children to be honest and responsible and it's like everything I taught him flew out the window. I don't think it has to do with his stepdad bc this behavior just started. Please help