Did you have a curfew? Was it different on the weekends? Were you grounded? Was it worth it?I never had a curfew, ever. Not as a child or as a teenager. What? Inconceivable. It may be due to three contributing factors. One -- I was a very obedient child. Two -- When you live in the same town where your father grew up and where he was a civic leader as well, the only essential information needed was the last name of my friends. Three -- I didn't date much. Going to school with many of the same kids from elementary to high school doesn't create too much interest if they aren't members of the church as well. Even when I did have a special someone for a short time, no curfew was imposed.
My parents extended to me a lot of trust -- more than I did with my children. Fast forward a generation and my oldest son is a senior in high school with his first girlfriend. Now there is a curfew where there hadn't previously been one -- 12:00 on weekends. Lessons learned? Have guidelines in place and always enforce the consequences. It's a nasty job, but someone has to do it.
3 comments:
I never had a curfew. Diddo what Kim said, my parents trusted me and I didn't date much. Although my mother always said, "If you get arrested plan on spending the night in jail because I won't bail you out," I don't believe she ever thought that was a possibility - that I would get arrested, I mean. This was way before cell phones, but I always would call and keep in touch. My friends were surprised that I let my mother know were I was all the time.
Having said that, a couple of weeks before I left for college I went "parking" with a summer romance from out of town. Wasn't sure where to go, so I directed him to go behind the high school. For those of you with more experience, was that the right place to go?
While we were "parked" my wild child older sister was encouraging my mother to come find me. She found us driving around town looking for my cousin, his friend and my sister. It was the first time I ever "talked back", saying I wasn't sorry and after he had driven all the way from Miles City I was going to spend some time with him. My mom tried to pretend she was mad, but then started laughing and told my guy and his friend to come out to the house for breakfast the next day. They were staying with some relatives in town.
You bad girl! I would have no idea where the "parking" places were :( I never got much further than my front driveway under the yard light by the barn. Kinda like out under the moonlight in the country, right?
I didn't really have a curfew, because the only placed that I "parked" was under the yard light in our parents' driveway. All that they had to do to check up on me was sit up in bed and look out their bedroom window. They knew when I came into the house because the only toilet that worked in our house back then was also right outside of their bedrooom. Mother said that she wished she had a porch light to flicker at me to tell me to come in. They never grounded us either. My boyfriend Don put an alarm clock in his car because he got grounded from me for coming home too late.
Post a Comment