Up until now I had mercifully been spared the whole issue of establishing curfews. My teen son seemed quite happy to stay home during the week with his family. He was also quite happy with our arrangement of no malls and no driving in cars driven by teens.

Well that all seems to be changing now.  Last night my 15 year old asked to have a serious talk with his father and I.

“I think I’m old enough now to have a curfew.”

I quickly did a run through of all the advice I’d received from friends who had already raised their children. I’m not suppose to respond negatively but be open to discussion.  So what did I say?

“Why do you need a curfew? We’ll take you and pick you up from places you need to go on the WEEKEND. During the week you have homework - no need for a curfew.”

Wrong answer. We then got a lecture from our teen how we need to allow him to grow and how he’s quite capable of making sound, safe decisions.

Well I was impressed. We’re still not allowing weeknight outings, but I did tell him I’d conisder his request to be able to travel home on his own (on the bus) after Saturday movies or visits to friends’ homes.

You know it’s not that I worry about his judgment, but I worry about the actions of other teens.  It’s so difficult to loosen that parental control that we have on our teens.  Time for me to see what resources are available for moms like me by checking the archives of one of the best websites (and podcasts) for parenting teens - www.parentingmyteen.com.