Have your tweens or teens got a curfew they need to abide by?
Being the parent of teens is no walk in the park, and we are all doing out best. I must admit, I don’t have curfews set in stone, as my own tween and teen don’t really stay out all that late ever, and if they are at a birthday party or even just over a friend’s house, they know what time I will collect them, as we agreed on this beforehand, and so no surprises there.
However, if your child tends to get themselves from A to B more, and are out with friends or out at parties they go to and come home from by themselves, I totally can see why so many parents opt to use a curfew their children have to stick to.
However, while the point most curfews are designed for, is to make sure kids are home by a certain time at night, as one mum discovered, maybe the main objective should be to make sure your child gets home safe?
Taking to social media, mum Catie Borland shared how she came to change her own daughter’s curfew – and why she thinks this change makes so much sense.
Captioning her post, the mum of teenagers wrote:
‘She asked, ‘Instead of having to be home by a certain time, could my curfew be to leave where I am by a certain time?’
A meaningful curfew change
The mum then explains she thought about it and it made total sense.
‘I never want my daughter to feel like she has to speed, rush, or make unsafe driving decisions just to beat the clock. I’d much rather she drive calmly and arrive home safely. So now when she’s getting ready to leave, she sends me a quick text.’
The mum added:
‘I know she’s on her way, and she knows she doesn’t have to anxiously watch the minutes tick by while she’s driving. It’s been a win-win.’
The curfew change was a lesson in more ways than one, the mum explained:
‘This has taken one unnecessary worry out of both of our evenings.’
She added:
‘I’m finding that the best parenting solutions aren’t always about becoming stricter or more lenient… it’s more about finding a system that helps everyone feel safer.’
