15 year old party, 50 teenagers attending - tips please!!

[pasanda]

So tomorrow night my DS is having a joint party between four of them. They are turning 15.

We are lucky enough to live in an old farmhouse which has a kind of 'games room' at one end, with a bathroom and kitchen area, separate from the main house. The party will be in there.

We are removing almost everything from the room and I am providing my ds with his own couple of bottles of pear cider, but am not providing any other alcohol than that. It is then up to the other parents what drinks they will allow their dc to bring.

I am aware that they may sneak in more alcohol. I am prepared for it I think

Any tips, words of wisdom, experience of such things gratefully received!

Fair play. It sounds like you worked hard to supervise them.

Amazing. Well done. To fail to plan is to plan to fail. Good for you. Deep breath.........and relax

I'm amazed that so many parents were prepared to pick their offspring up. DD is in year 11 and has been to a lot of 16th birthday parties. All of them have been sleeep-overs with very few going home, and the home goers have been increasing recently because it is so close to the GCSEs. Her friendship group is much smaller though and there are never more than 15 or 16 at these parties.

Some of her friends have been told no more parties until after the exams.

DD would be mortified if I asked her friends for their parents numbers to ring them and ask them to collect.

Really pleased it went well! My DD is in year 11 and has been to a couple of parties where alcohol has been but I think for us the trick is trust and communication. I think I was far worse when I was that age but we weren't so open with them then

What surprises me is that the parents go out at the parties DD goes to.

Ah, that's a lovely ending. My DS's first party was hell on earth and I vowed never to have another but to be fair it was just one or two absolute idiots who spoilt it, the rest were okay, if a little drunk loud and over-excitable.

About 18 months later I very reluctantly agreed to host another, much smaller 'gathering' so long as they promised to stay in the garden this time and certain individuals were not allowed to come. The second one was much better and I had my faith restored in the loveliness of most teenagers as they were a respectful and respectable bunch who still got drunk had fun but did nothing awful.

The late night pick ups.
It's the price you pay for living in the sticks. I'd hate for DC to resent their rural home which has no public transport and so DH and I never say no to a lift. I find that most of their friends parents do the same.
The ones who can't get lifts tend be those who live in town.

Re lifts. Everybody who came needed a parent to drop them here so I managed to chat to a lot of them and could easily get numbers. Lots of the kids had told them it finished at 11pm so they started getting picked up from then on. Last one left at midnight.

I agree with you Orac. I will always agree to giving DS lifts (when he's trustworthy again!!) because it's not his fault we live where we live. It's nearly half a mile to the end of the drive!

I'm happy to give DD lifts as well,but some other parents are less bothered and tend to rely on other parents or not let their teenager out.

DD has had friendship problems in the past and year 11 has been the best year so far friendship-wise and I don't want to stand in the way of her social life.

I always get the "I didn't choose to live miles away from school" line when DD needs a lift

I love that they used the recycling boxes

Awesome teens!