<p>^^^Kelsmom, great job!</p>
<p>Pullinghair, it sounds like the situation at the party was handled appropriately - as soon as the parents hosting the party found out a kid had brought alcohol, the kid was sent home in the care of his parents. I would certainly let my kid go to that house again. It’s the house where the parents don’t know what’s going on, or don’t care, that concerns me.</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with calling the parents who are hosting a party beforehand and asking if they will be home and supervising the kids. Your kid will probably threaten to kill you if you do it, but more of us need to be doing just that. </p>
<p>At our suburban high school, more than half of the students admit to drinking. It’s really hard to avoid it, although that doesn’t make it right. I get concerned when I hear a parent say, “I know my kid would never drink,” because with teens you can almost never say never about anything. And in some cases, I know for a fact that the kid in question DOES drink.</p>
<p>I think the best we can do is to stay in touch with our kids, know their friends, make sure our kids know our values and our rules, and hand out consistent discipline. Also be sure your kid knows that if they ever do end up in a situation that is getting out of hand, and realize they’re someplace they shouldn’t be, that they can call you for a ride home. No punishment, no questions asked, no ratting the other kids out. They need to know that their safety matters to you more than anything else. You don’t want them to stay in a bad situation because they’re afraid of being punished. Of course, they can’t expect to be “rescued” repeatedly, but once or twice is probably enough for them to learn where <em>not</em> to go.</p>