We’ve always tried to encourage our teens to be honest with us, even if they know they’ll be in trouble.
When Miss16 arrived home I naturally asked about the night, naturally fearing the answers. Teen pregnancy, drugs and illegal doings are the sorts of sordid thoughts which entertain themselves in my mind whenever my teenagers go out with friends. I can’t help it: I’m a worrier.
Now we don’t burden our kids with expectations they’ll be perfect and never make mistakes – the only mistake would be keeping things from us – so I was really impressed when Miss16 told me she had a sip of her friend’s brother’s Jim Beam last night. I wasn’t impressed she had the sip, of course, and I let her know this in no uncertain terms, but she had the guts to admit it. That impresses me – it’s one thing to explain to a kid what you expect from them, it’s an altogether different thing for them to actually follow through on it.
So will we be letting Miss16 out again? Yes. Will we be lecturing her on alcohol before she goes out? Yes. Am I glad we were talking about a sip of alcohol and not due dates? Absolutely!!