To give an 18 (almost 19) year old a curfew?

[Muchadoaboutnuthing]

We have an 18 year old foster d. She rarely goes out at night, maybe once a month but she has started coming home really late (e.g last month it was 5.30 a.m. and last night she didnt come home at all). She also lies about where she is going and who she is with. Until now we have tried talking to her and giving consequences for the behaviour, last time we grounded her for a fortnight, but nothing seems to be working.

She has been with us for 2 years and is supposed to be staying until the end of summer. WIBU to tell her if she's going out she needs to be back by 2 a.m. from now until June (thats when her exams are). If it was a younger teen I wouldn't hesitate but she's almost 19 and it seems a bit over the top. Chances are she wont stick to the curfew anyway but we've tried everything else.

Hmmmm. Bit old for a curfew but not too old for house rules.

My parents would simply wake me for a full English at 7am no matter how late I had been out the night before. Duvet off, windows open (mid winter too), stereo downstairs with loud classical music and made it clear that only whiners could not cope with getting up for breakfast.

Worked to be honest! No one wants a kipper two hours after the last tequila.

why do you need her back in at 2am? you need to be able to have a valid reason for this other than just "because 2am is late enough"

tbh at 18/19 she really is responsible for managing her own time, gettig enough sleep, getting up on time etc. so the only thing i would be insisting on is that she let you know if she expected to be back or if she was staying elsewhere so that you weren't awake all night worrying.

there will be some that will say "your house, your rules" but she is also a member of the family and at 18 should not be getting grounded like an adolescent. she is an adult. as long as she isn't coming in and waking up the rest of the house it really isn't an issue that she is staying out late.

I don't think you can ground someone who is legally an adult or give them a curfew. I realise that things may be complicated by the fact that she is your foster dd and is, perhaps, rather more vulnerable.

However, it is not U to have expectations all the time she lives in your house and certainly, letting you know where she is if she doesn't plan to come home would be quite reasonable. Otherwise you'll just worry, regardless of her age. I know that when my dcs were that age and at college they didn't have a weekend curfew but I did expect weeknights to be spent closer to home and for them to concentrate on working towards their exams. I was lucky. They were honest about where they went and with who but it's always difficult making rules for 18 year olds.

I think she's too old for curfews and groundings. I would just want to know where she is and the expectation that if she's stopping out she let you know.

I think YABU to give her a curfew. YANBU that lets you know if she is staying out by say 1am so you don't worry. If you can't stay out all night at 18/19/20 I don't know when you can TBH. Ahh happy days...

Thanks for the replies. Its a difficult situation probably more so due the fact shes in care. She went out last night, still isnt back, no idea where she is. The police dot take it too seriously because of her age, the social workers on the other hand take it extremely seriously and say that shes not being kept safe, which is a fair point.

The last time she stayed out for the night she put herself in a really dangerous situation and the sw threatened that the placement would have to come to an end. We're really trying to keep the placement secure until she does her exams as we worry that without a foster placement her education will probably come to an end.

i think if you relax a bit more OP and just let it be seen that you wont have a breakdown if she says she's going somewhere you mightn't want her too then she is less likely to lie about it in teh first place.

teens are very good at knowing what they need to do to get where they want to be. my mum was/is quite uptight and controlling. she imposed 11pm curfews when i was 18 so i just stayed out all night rather than coming in late and dealing with her going off on a rant at 1am. she essentially created the opposite of what she wanted, she wanted to know where i was and who with etc but the way she went about it meant that i wasn't going to be honest with her and so she might have thought i was at best friends studying when i was actually out getting pissed with people she didn't know. she mightn't have liked the idea of it but if i could have depended on her not to explode i might have been more willing to be honset about where i was and she then would have known.

ask yourself what is important to you. controlling where she goes and being lied to, or accepting that she will do things you dont want her to but at least you know where she is and who with?

Booyhoo, I see your point and its not about controlling her, its about keeping her safe. She's been allowed to stay at her boyfriends house in the past for example, she told me she was staying there and when I mentioned it in passing to his mum it turned out she hadnt stayed there at all, but with a much older guy she met online.

She has quite a lot of freedom, we tell her over and over again that she can go out, have her sleep overs etc but needs to tell us where she is. Thats not happening. Last night she went out, said she wouldnt be late. Texted me at 3 to say she was staying at her friends. I said that was fine, I'd collect her at 11 this morning. I went down and her friend says she went off with some guy last night and has no idea where she is now. The police won't look for her which is fair enough because of her age, but we're worried sick after what happened last time.

Muchado does she not have a phone ? I am sorry to hear she is putting herself in danger. I agree with Booy hoo you can and should insist that she tells you where she is and if she is staying out. I hope she is ok

X posts. I see you are concerned about her risk taking behavior, particularly her sexual risk taking rather than just staying out dancing or whatever (as I did). Have you explicitly explained your concerns. I don't really see what else you can do as she is an adult.

I met my now husband at 19 (he was my first boyfriend) and i never really went out at night till i met him but the rule was if i went out i had to be in by 10pm

Never occured to me to be late or stay at his (damm)

She's an adult now...so she can in effect be with whatever man she chooses. However, meeting men on the internet is awfully silly and she needs re-telling about this.

But you can't really tell an adult not to come in later than a certain time....at her age I was always off with some guy tbh.

The last time she stayed out for the night she put herself in a really dangerous situation and the sw threatened that the placement would have to come to an end.

I think that you have to have this conversation with her. She's old enough to understand the consequences of her behaviour and although you don't want her placement to fail, she's got to contribute herself to the success of it.

ok, in that case a curfew wont help. she'll just ignore it as there isn't really anything you can do to enforce it is there.

keep the lines of communication open, keep conversations relaxed. as hard as it may be dont let her see that you are itching for her to stop meeting these men as that could just act as an incentive to do it more.

do you think she is doing it to test the boundaries or for attention or just because she really likes these men? is she getting very drunk when she is going with these men?

i was living on my own at 19 and my parents wouldn't have known where i was for weeks at a time. (i was just being normal, working, having friends over, the odd night at the pub but for all they knew i had fallen off the face of the earth)

the thing that made me more likely to get in touch or visit them was when they eased off on the phonecalls asking me to call and saying they were worried about me. i can see now that it was selfish and inconsiderate of me not to call them back but at the time i was so pissed off with them thinking i wasn't capable of keeping myself safe. when they showed that they had backed off a bit, i felt more ready to talk with them and let them know all was ok.

i know it's hard. my mum still worries about me constantly and i've been a mum myself for almost 8 years now!

give your girl some credit, yeah she'll make mistakes and might possibly end up in bad situations but if she's determined to go there, she'll do it anyway.

in your shoes i would just let her know that you are there for her 100%. i would also try (i know it is easier said than done) to relax. let her feel relaxed enough around you to share hopefully as much as possible so that you know what's going on with her. maybe start sharing some stories of your own youth, let her see that you were young once,. have a laugh about the things you got up to, bond over it and let her know that your ok to talk to if she feels like ranting about her latest boyfriend or what her best friend is doing with such and such behind X's back. let her enjoy your company as more than just a parent figure. the more she relaxes with you the more she'll trust you.

and i'm going to try very hard to take my own advice in 10 years time.

I think it's all very well going she's an adult, can go out when she wants, that she 'needs telling' that meeting a man on the internet is awfully silly, but she's in care. Her situation is not that of a naice middle class, secure, well-adjusted teen/young adult. She's possibly extremely vulnerable and emotionally young for her age. It's completely different. And it also totally depends on what she's been through in life

OP you have my sympathies. I don't know what to suggest. I think given the situation a curfew might be appropriate, if you can sit her down and make her realise it's not a rule like a child gets given, just a house rule for all the adults in the property simply as a matter of respect. I'm not sure whether she'd remotely follow it.

Is she having counselling? If she's getting herself into situations where she's going off with dodgy men, it might be an issue she needs to address (I realise you might be thinking 'no shit sherlock', if there's abuse in her past). Does she realise this placement is at risk of ending if she repeats her behaviour.

I wish I had more advice. I hope things improve.

I agree with all the "talk to her" responses. I imagine she's been controlled, one way and another, throughout her young life and doesn't trust anyone to give her loose, but safe, boundaries.

It's a matter very close to my heart - my dictatorial parents imposed rules and curfews; raged at me when I stayed out (despite their insistence they did this out of concern, it made me frightened and angry). So I simply stayed away. It did mess with my A-levels, yes.

Tbh, once every few weeks isn't too frequent an all-nighter at 18yo. Were she away at uni, she'd be a doing it a few times a week. Please try to imbue her with the one thing her upbringing hasn't granted her so far - confidence. If you can get to the point where she really knows she won't be yelled at or sanctioned for behaving like an 18-year-old, where she can feel safe to ring you at any time should she need rescuing ... you will have done a wonderful job.

Good luck!

I agree that she is probably vulnerable and emotionally young for her age - her previous behaviour suggests she puts herself at risk - but I think the problem with imposing a curfew at her age is that she has no need to observe it. Especially if she's not truly aware of the consequences of her behaviour. I suspect that the OP would be less worried if her foster dd was prepared to be truthful and perhaps that's an issue to try and get to the bottom of.

Because she might agree to come home at 2am but it's what she's doing when she's out that is almost more worrying than the time she comes home. And if she refuses to observe a curfew, what does the OP do other than report it to SS which will almost certainly bring the placement to an end.

Her situation is not that of a naice middle class, secure, well-adjusted teen/young adult.

You know what, moisturiser, that sentence would have been more meaningful without the "naice middle class" part. Thoughtless snobbery doesn't help anyone at all.

middle class is no guarantee of beig well adjusted. believe me.

Thanks for all the advice. Its a hard one for me beacuse I moved out of my parents house as soon as I could, I was 17. So from then on I lived alone so had no real rules, curfew etc except self-imposed ones, e.g. I had to get up for work in the morning so couldn't go out and get drunk every night.

I just want to get fd as far as her exams at this stage. Going home isn't an option for her and doesnt look like it ever will be so she has no family to go to if this placement fails. This really is her last chance. At least if we get through the exams the sw will look at independant living or something for her, if she has to leave now she'll basically lose whatever support she does have. Shes an amazing girl and I don't want to see that happen to her. Shes really clever and does want to go to college but she just needs to settle down for these few months.

The sw spelled out for her a few weeks ago where her behaviour is leading her. And she does seem sorry and does want to stay with us, but all sense of reason seems to go out the window once she gets involved with some new guy.

I'm so concious that I must seem like a hypocrite to her, at her age I was living with DH and pregnant with our first child soon after and it was hard. But I did have my family to support me and my exams finished.

I agree with the talk to her ones. Firstly this is about respect. She should get that. If she stays out she says where she is and with who and where. This works both ways, don't disappear out during day for example without note. She must have a mobile? Can't u all have find friends app on it? I can see where my dh is all the time. Same with key family friends. If u all did it so all of u can be found its ok.

She must know there's consequences to her behaviour? Are u saying she does but doesn't presently care? Not sure.

I think you both can only do so much. You sound very supportive of her. I hope it works out. I really do.

How can a social worker end a placement if she's 18?

Sounds to me that the real issue is the different agencies- social services and police, and you, all have different guidelines and expectations and it's impossible to marry them up.

Legally as an adult, you can't give her a 'curfew' and the police cant do anything if she chooses to stay out. If her sw is saying that she's vulnerable and that you should be doing something to 'keep her safe' then the onus is on them to spell out what that is. Because other than all the very sensible and reasonable things you're already doing, such as advising her about personal safety, I can't see what else you can do, without overstepping into un reasonable behaviour such as trying to place a curfew on her . I sympathise with your worries but I think you're being put in an impossible situation if the sw is suggesting you do more

When will she cease to be in care? Are you talking about setting long term boundaries and house rules, or is it a case of managing the situation for a few months?

I'm not sure a curfew would help, as other have said it sounds like keeping the channels of communication open so she trusts you and will turn to you if she needs help will be the most effective way to keep her safe.