14 year old boy wants to go out with friends on New years eve

[mamaofboys71]

Where we live there is a town near by with a tradition of everyone going out on the street in fancy dress for new years eve. It starts out very family 'fun' and gets messier as the night goes on. My 14 year old son has been asking to go with his friends for the last couple of years and I have always said no. He's youngest in his year so a lot of his friends are 15.He is quite mature and is 6ft tall, but I am worried that he could get mistaken for being older and caught up in fighting. I know his friends will be drinking. My gut wants to not let him go, but at the same time I feel like he would have loads of fun with his friends and will resent me for not letting him go. Do I stick to my Victorian mumma stance, or loosen up and let him go out?!

[greenlynx]

I think he’s too young, definitely not until he’s 16 himself. Also it might be simplier for him just not to go at all than to go for a bit.

[BrokenWing]

14 year old wants to go, unsupervised, to a public street party, in a town over 30 mins drive away, on NYE where adult and underage drinking (and the rest) will be in excess and there is known to be trouble at.

Under those circumstances my answer would be no (ds is 16 in February and my answer would still be no), if all his friends are going I would consider it if he AND they were trustworthy not to get too out of it (which ds is, been there once and refuses to drink at all now), but also only if there was going to be adult supervision by at least one known parent nearby. I agree with your comment, when they are 6ft tall it is too easy to get mistaken for an adult and get into trouble when at 14 they cant deal with.