The teen years are when we most often hear about what everyone else\u2019s parents do. Everyone else\u2019s parents let them stay out until 2 am. Everyone else\u2019s parents are letting them spend an unsupervised weekend at the shore. Everyone else\u2019s parents let them do whatever they want!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guess what? Everyone else\u2019s parents are hearing the same thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is your teen lying to you? Maybe. Or maybe not. Many teens stretch the truth, or honestly believe that their parents will have no issue with them exerting more independence. Some teens are living in such a bubble that they have no concept of money or value of things. But pushing limits is normal at this age. After all, isn\u2019t that what the teenage years are for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes I\u2019ve sat back as my kids planned events without reacting or responding. Many times, these plans simply fizzled out. I found that many times their friends hadn\u2019t even mentioned those (obviously not well thought out) plans to their parents, much less gotten approval for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While I initially got worked up over these discussions, I soon learned to sit back and let things play out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those 2 am nights out? Not likely to happen. I live in a state that has a curfew for new drivers. They have what the kids call a \u201cCinderella license.\u201d Simply put, they are not allowed to be driving after midnight, with very few exceptions. I do know some parents who do not enforce this, but there\u2019s a very real chance that the state may. In addition, I know very few parents who are willing to go out to pick up their child at 2 am.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those unsupervised beach weekends? Also not likely to happen. Few places are willing to rent for a weekend, preferring to rent by the week. Even fewer will rent to a group of teenagers. Most rentals require an adult to sign a lease agreement and will limit the number of underage guests. This is a fact sometimes best learned by teens themselves. It also eliminates hostility toward what is seen as overbearing parents. Though I am fine with being \u201cthe bad guy,\u201d it\u2019s nice when someone else bears the brunt of that anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes the plans change and become more pf a possibility. Maybe the weekend is not fully <\/em>unsupervised. Maybe one family has a beach house and the parents are willing to allow their child to bring friends for a weekend, while they are also there<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have had to explain many times to my children that it is not that I don\u2019t trust them, or even their friends, but that there are sometimes circumstances that they are simply not equipped to handle. There are some emergencies, or even relatively minor mishaps, that could occur that they would need an adult to help guide them through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other times, the plans keep evolving into an elaborate trip where the cost climbs beyond what is reasonable. In these cases, I\u2019d point out that they will be paying for it. Sometimes this has put a stop to the plans (when they either can\u2019t or won\u2019t find the money); other times it has been the push to get them to work toward a goal. If there is not enough time to save, they have then learned the importance of planning in advance and setting a budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And if you\u2019re still unsure what everyone else\u2019s parents have to say about this? Ask them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The teen years are when we most often hear about what everyone else\u2019s parents do. Everyone else\u2019s parents let them stay out until 2 am. Everyone else\u2019s parents are letting them spend an unsupervised weekend at the shore. Everyone else\u2019s parents let them do whatever they want! Guess what? Everyone else\u2019s parents are hearing the same thing. Is your teen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teens","tag-everyone-elses-parents"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/07\/IMG_5882.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":553,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/553"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}