do you wait up for your 17 year old to get ib??

[lifeshocker]

so tired today. My 17 nearly 18 year old daughter went to a party was suppossed to be in for one. Got in at half past.
I could have really done with an early night as I am off work sick at the moment. Am I being overprotective staying up? What does everyone else do?

Biwi I still pick them up from parties sometimes and it's always the other lads throwing up out of the back window of teh car and talking crap, or being taken to A&E!

The other thing I find reassuring is that I know for certain he isn't taking any drugs as he's in the Ta and has already had 3 random drug tests, all clear .

Now if they'd tested him a year ago....

Maryz.

DS and most of his friends have passed their tests and own their own cars but leave them at home and get taxis, as they all have those Spy things which fine you if you drive after 11pm, so no point in taking them out as they'd only have to get them back the next day.

They spend a bloody fortune on taxis though!

We live very rurally so if they are coming back home they get the local mini bus man to pick them up. He never leaves without them all and makes sure they get in the house rather than having a nap in the garden, as one boy tried to do last December.
We trust him so I can sleep. The only down side is there are usually about eight or nine of them.

This is another reason for a) not moving into the depths of the country and b) not sending your children to schools miles and miles from where you live,however good both of these things look when they are little!

Dd has friends who live 30 miles away, and there is no way she can get herself home. Grrrrrrrrrrr!

And I will be much more worried about ds when he's old enough to be out at night than I am about dd.

DD out last night - back at 3.30am. She's 18 and always goes out/comes back with friends who stay over so although I wake up briefly when she comes in (normally to the sound of the 6" wedges hitting the ground just inside the front door) I don't worry - she's off to uni next week anyway!!!!!! As she's always with friends I don't have a problem as although they get rat-arsed there's always one slightly more capable of holding the others up!!! I'd worry more if she came home on her own I guess

brilliant idea about the alarm clock going to try it tonight. I have teenage boy and girl and honestly think I worry about them both equally for different reasons. Statistically boys are more likely to be attacked and boys and men can be sexually attacked. I am very paranoid have relatives in the police and some of the stories they tell me....

I used to lie awake waiting for DS1 - now at uni. Once frantically until 6am, he never did this again without texting me. Now he is 19 and when he's home I can sleep when he goes out.

I am aware that I have had it easy with him though and fully expect his brothers to be a lot worse. I am now just starting all this with DS2,16, and yes I lie awake waiting for him but so far the latest has been midnight. He has a very tight group of mates and they stick together always so I feel relatively calm so far.

It's DS3,13, who I know will be a nightmare later on ... not looking forward to that.

I have trained myself to go to sleep on the grounds that if anything awful has

happened ( statistically unlikely) I will be better able to deal with it after a good

night's sleep.

DS1who is 20 is good about letting me know if he will be home( usually a text). The "bad things" that have happened to him have been in broad daylight ( mugging).

My sister couldn't sleep and her DS worked in clubs so was never home until the wee small hours. He has long since left home but she is a virtual insomniac after years of enforced wakefulness .

I go to sleep and DH waits up for him.

He also doesn't have a drink on the nights that DS goes out ...Just in case!

Iknowwho how old is your ds?

16 and 1/2.

When he is out late he is at a friends house and parents are there.I am friendly with the parents so I can check out what is happening.

It's not often he is out mega late, he went to an after proms party until 3.00am and taxis were organized in advanced and a couple of 16th that went on until 2.00am. Again taxis were booked and DH was on standby. I went to bed at about 12 as I was working the following day.

When I married, my 3 DSs were 18,17 and 15 respectively, and already in or out with no time limits - something I found a bit of a culture shock (my dd was still 8). We had a few hiccups but generally the rule was they had to call dad by 11 if not coming home to let him know where they were staying. we discussed the alarm clock as dad never heard them come in but I worried! Result, 3 happy boys and luckily no probs. DSd nearly 14 and Dd 12 so about t start again - VERY different rules. Plan to set times which are fair to them but as we have been practising with daytime outings and bedtimes - come home late and we deduct time from next time. 3 lates and stay home. Oh, and as soon as bith are 13, I will watch 'Taken'with them so they can get a view on what we parents are so loony about! First post ever sorry so long!