George--
Good experience, bad experience....he can now label himself a Man of Experience.
By Nigel's report, it was a pretty dull time. Most of his date's friends
went solo and they spent a lot of the time chatting with Nigel on the
periphery. I kidded him about his function being "decorative."
George--
Glad to hear he survived.
Now the question is:
Will he invite someone to his Senior Prom?
George--
The life of a parent is just chock-full of suspense.
Tune in tomorrow.
Don't ever be afraid of making your childrens business YOUR business. Because it IS!!!
Meet & talk with him, and then check him out using all of your resources as best you can without either of them finding out. Believe me, I found out the hard way with my oldest son that giving him too much privacy & not snooping in his business was the worst thing I could do. He's in prison now!
I also use ChatChecker.com to secretly spy on my other kids instant messages. That's how I found out that my 14 yr old daughters 16 yr old boyfriend asked her if he could "finger" her! She told him no, but I still wanted to kill the SOB! Luckily, they broke up soon after that. I also use my state online sex offender registry to see if anyone in their friends family is registered so I can keep them away from there if I find anything. It's not foolproof, but it helps.
Anyway, the more information you get the better you'll feel.
Good luck!
I'm with Dadpad and George. If a parent has has done their job a child of 15/16 needs to have some room.
Having all been there ourselves, those of us parenting teeneagers have to remember that making good AND bad decisions is also part of our kids education.
PP, how about next time she gets asked to a dance, ask her what the arrangements will be for ticket purchases, trarnsportation, if his curfew is the same as hers, etc. Then she can ask about these things and let you know. That would help guide her to learn what questions to ask and what has to be thought about before accepting a date.
Pity the kid being snooped on. An open, non-judgemental relationship where you can both express your thoughts and feelings without raising voices would yield so much more information. (And, better decisions by the kid)
geesh, just check out her my space or facebook
I think you may be veering towards over-protective and generate some kind of backlash at a future time when your daughter has greater freedom (e.g. college).
What are you afraid of? Don't you trust your daughter to make sensible decisions about who she goes to a dance with and what she does there?
She sounds like a model student and a "good girl". I think you need to sit her down and discuss her expectations of the event and what she thinks of the boy concerned - it should be clear if you need to offer any specific counselling at that stage.
KP
