I"m pp and I meant to say NOT strict. |
| I spent almost every night at my girlfriend's house my senior year of high school -- snuck out when my parents went to bed and back before they got up. Ended when my dad got up early one day for a business trip and was standing in the kitchen when I got home. I moved out of their house a few weeks after that. |
That is intriguing to me—is your friend a parent herself now? Does she intend to let her kids roam free at night? |
This was me to the letter. My parents were so strict and my curfew was always 2-3 hours earlier than my friends. So I snuck out. A lot. I have vowed as a parent not to do this to my own kid. |
Thanks for the rec on the system. Often alone with kids and probably a nice thing to have |
Let's be real. I don't know any kids who could honestly support themselves in HS around here and be able to move out. Rent is insane. so maybe instead of everyone going nuclear we could actually talk to our kids about boundaries etc |
| My high school boyfriend used to sneak out to come to my house. When is mom figured it out she had an extra deadbolt installed and locked it behind him the next time he snuck out. He had to knock to get back in. That ended that. |
| This is actually a common issue. |
| When we bought our house it had an ADT alarm that 'chimes' every time a door or window is opened. We didn't sign up for their service, but the alarm still chimes each time the door opens. It's not an alarm per se, but I do like having an alert when someone is going in and out. |
| I'd make sure they knew how to use birth control. |
Funny, my friends who did this in the 90’s had small three bedroom houses. Like other OP - it is the overly strict parents whose children do this, IME. My friends who did this also turned out to be productive members of society. |
X1000 |
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When I was in HS there was exactly one girl I knew who did this.
She is now a successful jewelry designer living in Paris with her two beautiful daughters and her multi-millionaire husband. Bad behavior does not always end in bad ways. |
My parents were the opposite of strict. Super lenient. I snuck out all the time and drank and did drugs. Had parties when they were gone. They wouldn't have approved of that stuff, in fact I got in trouble when I got caught (though they weren't consistent with punishment). I'm a productive member of society now, though I do have some long-term issues that probably stem from or are somewhat related to early heavy drug use (depression, forgetfulness, etc). I hope I can be a parent that instills good judgment and trust in my kids, while making it clear that behavior won't fly. Be involved without being a helicopter. I try to think about what my parents could have done that would have put me on a different track -- be more involved, be vigilant, be fair and firm and consistent. Definitely have a security system, too. My kids are little now but I do plan to have tracking devices on them in their teens
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Yes, but it’s a little like saying “I didn’t wear seat belts and I lived.” Sure, most people will be fine. And then there’s the ones who won’t be fine (who get pregnant, get hit by a car crossing a road at night, pass out drunk on the way home and die of exposure without their parents realizing they were out, get attacked by a sexual predator while they are out and never tell their parents because they knew they weren’t supposed to be out...) I think it’s fine to put reasonable limits on your teen. Some kids are good at outing limits on themselves—others are not and need more structure while their brains are still developing. |