The Pros and Cons of Letting Your Teen Party at Home

It is a conflict that most parents will have to face at some point during their teens’ growing up years: their teen will want to party, experiment with alcohol and indulge in ‘grownup’ activities that their immaturity is ill-suited to.

Your options

So what are the options that a parent has about teen partying?

Simply turning a blind eye to what the child is doing and leaving him or her without direction can be disastrous.

So one of the middle paths that some parents pick is to let teens party at their home under their own supervision. This is based on the premise that they’re going to drink anyway, its better if they do so in my home under my supervision.

Some parents may let the teen organize parties at home but may allow no alcohol. Others parents may allow alcohol but take the precaution of taking away the car keys from all the kids present to be given back to the kid only if the parent is convinced that he or she can safely drive back home.

The Problems with letting your teen party at home

While letting your teen party at home may make you rather popular, even ‘cool’ among your kids’ friend circle, but letting your teen drink alcohol, even supervised, is just not a good idea.

Research shows that letting teens drink predisposes to alcohol problems later, even if they are supervised. Kids who are not permitted around alcohol till they are 21 are best off, it was found.

Many parents counter this by saying that it is possible to teach their teen responsibility by offering them an occasional glass of wine or beer with a meal and so on. This takes care of the curiosity that most teens feel about alcohol and it also allows parents to supervise how much their teen drinks and what he or she does as a result of that drinking.

The main flaw in allowing teens to party and drink even under supervision is that parents are sending out the indirect message that underage drinking is OK and that they have their parents’ tacit approval for further experimentation and even other irresponsible behaviors.

And the simple fact is that a teen is unequipped with the maturity and self awareness that is required to stop once the drinking starts. Possible consequences may include violence, accidents, unprotected sex and other irresponsible behaviors.

So in conclusion, no matter how many reasons there are, while allowing your teen to party at home may seem like a good idea, it just isn’t a good idea. The cons quite simply outweigh the supposed pros.

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