Regardless of whether it's your daughter or son, there is great pride when they either go to their high school prom or they graduate. Or both!
But before you get carried away with that wonderful sense of watching your child reach an important milestone, I must remind you that 'responsibility' for their well-being kindof, sortof trumps the beaming that you experience right about now.
Prom night and graduation time will certainly test your commitment to being more of a parent than a friend at this point in their life.
No matter how mature your child is, peer pressure and hormones often trump common sense.
Allowing them to spend the night at a hotel/motel after the big event is a HUGE mistake! Whether or not there are chaperones planned for. Chaperones, if they are responsible, are apt to nod off at some point in the evening. Likewise, they cannot be everywhere at once. And it doesn't take long for a lifetime's worth of heartache to be born.
Parties at your home might be safer, but that does not mean that you will have an easy time doing what you should. So, they will be too young for booze. Of course they will beg and plead. They will point out that they will soon go off to college or trade school or work. And, you obviously would not be able to monitor their behavior then. Well, Mom and Dad, this is when you agree with them, but use that old but true line: While you live in my home and I am paying your bills and legally responsible for you...
Moderate drinking will be suggested. Yet, while you know your child's health issues, you might not know the others'. What if they take certain medications? Or they took some drug beforehand? Or, plan to do so, after you serve them?
Overnight parties at your home pose much of the same risks as the hotel ones do. Except your share of any liability if something goes wrong, increases. A lot! And, you might take the guests' car keys but that doesn't guarantee that they did not hide another set, somewhere. Or that they might simply 'take off' at some point in time.
You also cannot be everywhere at once, so sex, drugs, and even fights can take place without or before you know it.
Bottomline: You need to step up to the plate and be a responsible parent. Your child might yell or scream or throw some other temper tantrum. They might even say, "I hate you!'. But, as someone much wiser than I once said: If your child doesn't say that at least once to you, then you failed as a parent.
'Nuff said.