It's every teenager's dream: The parents are going away for the weekend and the teen will be home alone. Unfortunately, it's also most parents' worst nightmare, or, at the very least, a time of high anxiety.
For most teenagers, an empty house seems the perfect setting for a party. Mom and dad may have expressly forbidden parties, but what they don't know won't hurt them, right? The problem is that it might hurt not only the parents, but everyone involved in the party, from host to guests.
You don't have to search very long or very hard to find stories of parties gone bad. The teens who host the parties rarely intend for things to get out of hand. It just sort of happens. What starts as a low-key get together with a few friends escalates as word spreads that the party is unsupervised. Or, worse yet, the party is made pubic and an open invitation is extended to anyone and everyone.
Regardless of how the party comes into being, alcohol will inevitably be involved. Few parents believe that their teenagers or teenagers' friends drink, but studies of teen culture prove otherwise. Studies have found that anywhere from 55 to 80 percent of teenagers admit to drinking. Of those, nearly 80 percent admit to binge drinking on the weekends. So when a group of teens gather together unsupervised, alcohol is likely to be included.
On a public forum, one anonymous high school senior put it like this: "So here you've got this group of kids who don't really know each other very well, who are insecure about who they are, what they think and believe, and everyone wants to be cool and say the right things and act the right way. That's a lot of pressure. So it's easy to turn to drugs and alcohol. They act as 'social catalysts', making pleasant interaction possible where it previously would have been prohibitively uncomfortable."
Hosting a party while parents are out of town is, of course, tempting for every teenager. High school gossip is primarily comprised of stories surrounding the latest and greatest parties, and everyone wants theirs to be the greatest. Everyone wants to have their name attached to that legendary party that students will be talking about for years to come.
A word of caution to teenagers, however; it doesn't take much for a party to get out of hand. You could get stuck having to clean up a HUGE mess, repair damage to your parents' home, or worse. Someone could overdose on drugs or alcohol, which not only means that person's life is at risk, but the police will end up getting involved. And since drugs are illegal for everyone, and alcohol is illegal for everyone under 21, you could be fined or even arrested for hosting the party. These aren't meant to be scare tactics; these things happen, more often than not, at unsupervised teen parties.
It may seem like a good idea now; the parents will be gone for a few days, you'll have plenty of time to clean up, and your friends would love it. But having a party while your parents are away is a big risk. So many things can go wrong. Spend some time searching the Web for stories; they're not hard to find. Read other teenagers' stories about parties they had and what went wrong. Then think long and hard about whether you're willing to risk having the same things happen at your parents' house.
Labels: parental-involvement, liability, parties
Posted By: Aspen Education Group