It’s time to end curfews and let teens stay out late

PHOTO: A series of texts from a parent

By Ava Giovannettone

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

What’s the best way to bring down the mood on a night you’re having fun? A text from a parent telling you to come home.

High school is your very last chance to be a kid, to live your life without real world worries flying at you every day.

Partying on weekends until the early morning and going downtown with your friends with no particular plan of what you’re going to do is a fun part of high school that shouldn’t be curtailed.

Kids should be able to start figuring out their life for themselves. After all, how else are they supposed to prepare to live independently?

Having a strict curfew in high school just makes kids want to stay out later. When they become adults and live on their own they will try to make up for lost time and live the life they never had by staying out late. 

Giving teenagers the option to stay out as late as they please gives them a small taste of what it’s like to be on their own.

High school students are stressed out enough. They are constantly checking their grades, grinding out homework the second they get home, squeezing in extracurriculars and sports, all on top of the social pressures that come with high school.

The least parents can do is let their kids have freedom on weekends to have fun and go out as they please. 

Kids don’t need their parents stressing them out on top of everything else. Especially when they’re trying to have fun.

Parents worry about their kids, and on top of everything, they just want them to be safe.

When their kids are out late, how about an occasional text message saying: “how are you? Where are you? Are you having fun? Are you safe? Who are you with?” 

A parent who trusts their child makes the relationship stronger and more open.