Home Alone, Part 3
I don’t mean to drag this home alone conversation on and on, but I still have some concerns. Your responses give a very positive picture of teens staying overnight by themselves, which is wonderful to hear.
However, local news reported just this past week that a high school girl was sexually assaulted at a party. Alcohol was involved and parents were not home. We all know stories – teens whose parents are out of town invite a few friends over, but word gets out and soon the house is full of kids and the party is out of control.
As a parent, I have a hard time understanding why any parent would take a chance that something like this could happen. Is leaving Ryan home alone worth the risk?
Remembering what I was like in high school, you wouldn’t have had a problem with me trashing the house with a major house party. You would have had a problem with me actually staying at the house by myself. I would have left and gone somewhere to have fun with my friends or sleep over someone’s house.
I agree with Devan. If you set up enough safety protocols, then Ryan will be strongly discouraged from having a party. It’s true that sometimes things can get out of hand and more kids arrive than expected, but there’s a simple solution to that. Just make sure that if Ryan invites a few friends, he doesn’t mention that his parents are out of town. That way twenty extra kids won’t unexpectedly appear on the front doorstep.
There are always risks involved with giving teens responsibility, but that’s a big part of their road to adulthood. The best way to minimize a chance for disaster is to set up precautionary measures and warn Ryan of what could happen.
As Devan says, we can put plenty of backups and checks in place. But I’m not ok with “kids will be kids.” Teenagers do not have the same perspective, depth of experience and awareness of consequences that most adults have. Mom and I need to know how much we can trust Ryan, and, as a back-up, we definitely need to have a friend or family member keep an eye on the situation while we are gone.