Prom: Who's in charge here?
Sunday’s feature section included an article about high school proms http://beaumontenterprise.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18238107&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512551&rfi=6
Part of the package was both a print and on-line poll about what is hot and what is not for proms. Here's the poll:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18236910&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=597374&rfi=6
As a parent of a daughter who will attend her high school prom in a few weeks, I don’t care who matches whom or if anyone looks like a princess. There are only three aspects of the poll to which I would like to respond.
None of them are “Hot” all of them are “Not.” Call it hard-nosed, uncool or whatever you like, I certainly hope my daughter feels the same way.
Making out on the dance floor . . . that’s an easy one. That’s what chaperones (and self-respect) are for. Eeeewwwww, gross. Think about it this way kids: Would you want to watch your PARENTS doing that?
Getting a room, really, how disgusting. I don’t know who, in this instance I would be more offended by: The parents who might finance such a “perk” or the hotels that actually would allow teenagers – high school students – to do this. Draw a line and don’t cross it. Please, don’t even go there.
Alcohol, likewise. It is, after all a law. Underage, under arrest.
Parents who send any other message or allow their underage high schoolers to partake are risking much more than those of us who risk not being the “cool” parents. Unfortunately, when they allow such behavior they aren’t the only ones who risk getting a phone call or knock on the door in the middle of the night telling them their children have been killed – or have killed someone else while drinking and driving.
Consuming alcohol requires a certain amount of maturity and a fairly controlled situation. Neither exist at proms. Before you even consider this, think about how much pizza teenage boys consume when they get together. Now, put that into terms of alcohol consumption and the potential disaster comes clearly into focus.
Teenagers, by their very nature, think they are indestructible. It’s up to the parents to set, and enforce, the rules they expect their children to abide by.
My son, now a very grown up 25, followed these very strict rules while he was in high school and still living at home, though he’s certainly attended his fair share of college parties in the years since he’s been on his own (and I’ve seen the pictures to prove it.) He survived. So will his sister. So will your kids. Drinking and sex do not beget popularity (though the two combined certainly have a high potential to beget other problems.)
Said son now sometimes drives a limousine in another city as a way of making extra money (in addition to his full-time job) while he’s finishing up college. Last weekend he drove a group of high school prom goers, who coincidentally were students at the high school where his fiancée is a teacher.
I asked him, because I was curious, if the students were getting drunk in the limousine while he drove. He assured me, absolutely not, that, in fact, they were sipping bottled water from champagne flutes. He offered to stop and let them buy soft drinks or sparkling grape juice, but nothing else.
So, to you parents out there teetering on the fence and trying to be cool, please, have a talk and take a stand. These kids have years to grow up and do adult things like rent hotel rooms and drink. Let’s make sure they survive prom night unscathed, so they can do that.
Part of the package was both a print and on-line poll about what is hot and what is not for proms. Here's the poll:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18236910&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=597374&rfi=6
As a parent of a daughter who will attend her high school prom in a few weeks, I don’t care who matches whom or if anyone looks like a princess. There are only three aspects of the poll to which I would like to respond.
None of them are “Hot” all of them are “Not.” Call it hard-nosed, uncool or whatever you like, I certainly hope my daughter feels the same way.
Making out on the dance floor . . . that’s an easy one. That’s what chaperones (and self-respect) are for. Eeeewwwww, gross. Think about it this way kids: Would you want to watch your PARENTS doing that?
Getting a room, really, how disgusting. I don’t know who, in this instance I would be more offended by: The parents who might finance such a “perk” or the hotels that actually would allow teenagers – high school students – to do this. Draw a line and don’t cross it. Please, don’t even go there.
Alcohol, likewise. It is, after all a law. Underage, under arrest.
Parents who send any other message or allow their underage high schoolers to partake are risking much more than those of us who risk not being the “cool” parents. Unfortunately, when they allow such behavior they aren’t the only ones who risk getting a phone call or knock on the door in the middle of the night telling them their children have been killed – or have killed someone else while drinking and driving.
Consuming alcohol requires a certain amount of maturity and a fairly controlled situation. Neither exist at proms. Before you even consider this, think about how much pizza teenage boys consume when they get together. Now, put that into terms of alcohol consumption and the potential disaster comes clearly into focus.
Teenagers, by their very nature, think they are indestructible. It’s up to the parents to set, and enforce, the rules they expect their children to abide by.
My son, now a very grown up 25, followed these very strict rules while he was in high school and still living at home, though he’s certainly attended his fair share of college parties in the years since he’s been on his own (and I’ve seen the pictures to prove it.) He survived. So will his sister. So will your kids. Drinking and sex do not beget popularity (though the two combined certainly have a high potential to beget other problems.)
Said son now sometimes drives a limousine in another city as a way of making extra money (in addition to his full-time job) while he’s finishing up college. Last weekend he drove a group of high school prom goers, who coincidentally were students at the high school where his fiancée is a teacher.
I asked him, because I was curious, if the students were getting drunk in the limousine while he drove. He assured me, absolutely not, that, in fact, they were sipping bottled water from champagne flutes. He offered to stop and let them buy soft drinks or sparkling grape juice, but nothing else.
So, to you parents out there teetering on the fence and trying to be cool, please, have a talk and take a stand. These kids have years to grow up and do adult things like rent hotel rooms and drink. Let’s make sure they survive prom night unscathed, so they can do that.
posted by Sheila Friedeck at 12:47 PM
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