Do you wait up for your dc?

[whitehorsesdonotlie]

Dd has just turned 18. I have to wait up for her to get in from a night out - can't sleep until I know she's safe.

Anyone else? Currently waiting for her and longing to go to sleep....

Also, does your 18yo dc have a curfew?!

I don’t wait up as such but I’m not truly asleep until I hear the door go. My DD is 20 so a bit older than yours but I still worry. She doesn’t have a curfew but I expect a text if she plans to stay out.
I also leave a hallway light on. She turns it off when she comes in & then whatever time I wake during the night I can see she’s home.

It’s not an easy time to navigate. I’m trying to find the right balance between allowing her adulthood & keeping her safe. She says she doesn’t mind us wanting to know where she is. Think she likes being a little bit babied.

I have four at very different ages & they all keep me in perpetual neurosis!

Yes! It's worse because dd has obviously lost a year of her growing up teenage years too Covid so this is a big change for all of us. Trying to find the right balance.

Here she is now!

If adult DS isn’t in by 2, I’m awake in bed waiting to hear him open the front door. Can’t help it. He works late evenings and is in mostly by 12:30am, it sometimes is out with friends after and doesn’t say (and doesn’t have to say). I check WhatsApp all the time cos it says last online at X time l. Can’t wait for him to move out 😂

I once had to phone in work and have an emergency day off because DS had gone out & didn’t come home. His battery had died & he decided to stay at a friends. I couldn’t contact him so was awake all night worried sick! So yes, I stay awake until 18, nearly 19 year old, is in. I’m a worrier.

My concern is that she’s gone missing and the time it takes me to realise is time I could have the entire country searching!

Joking aside i don’t think it’s a bad thing to worry about your children no matter their age. My parents didn’t care where I was from about 14 or 15 and it didn’t feel great.
I think there’s also the factor of them being at the age where you feel invincible & so perhaps more likely to put themselves in precarious positions.

Yes my kids are 23 & 19. If they’re coming home they know they have to come in to my room to let me know they’re in. I’m reality I’m always half awake so hear the door opening anyway but just in case I’m asleep they will wake me.

I think it’s nice. My parents used to go to bed when I was out and sometimes they’d forget about me and leave their key in the door so I was locked out. Couldn’t be roused by ringing or banging on the door so I used to go and sleep on my granny’s sofa as she would at least wake up when I knocked on the door! Always made me feel a bit uncared for.

@riotlady

I think it’s nice. My parents used to go to bed when I was out and sometimes they’d forget about me and leave their key in the door so I was locked out. Couldn’t be roused by ringing or banging on the door so I used to go and sleep on my granny’s sofa as she would at least wake up when I knocked on the door! Always made me feel a bit uncared for.

That was me. Key in front and back doors and no apology the following day. Sometimes they’d even gone out for the day when I got home from wherever I’d ended up.