<p>and we allow no alcohol. So far, the kids have been really good. Last year, a boy rang our doorbell, and I knew he was not on the guestlist, so I had him wait outside, while I checked with my S. The I came back up and apologized to him saying that we had reached the limit on number of kids. Yikes!! The mom did not speak to me for weeks. But he was not even a friend in the first place, just someone that found out online.</p>
<p>sure Jym, May 18th</p>
<p>Choco- can you and Berurah cater ours this weekend?? I promise I’ll let you get some sleep. ;)</p>
<p>Last time we did something list this was this same son hosting a millenium new years eve party (obviously in 1999-2000). They were all 9 yrs old and carried on til all hours of the night. My h works in I.T. so got to sit in his office with gourmet catered food watching the computers do much of nothing back then. I paid my older son $100 to stay up and help with the 9 yr olds. He told me later it was the hardest $100 he ever earned.</p>
<p>choc~</p>
<p>Hope you don’t mind if we show up too…and bring a crowd! Put us on your guest list so we won’t have to wait at the door. 
And I’ll bring the biscotti and homemade pizza–always a crowd pleaser around here!! :)</p>
<p>jym~</p>
<p>I have a GREAT cappucino flavored one (coffee/chocolate flavored with walnuts, and it’s still low fat <em>lol</em>) and some really good, chocolaty ones, also with nuts. I also have a spice one that tastes like gingerbread and an orange/almond one that everyone seems to love too…</p>
<p>~b.</p>
<p>We’ve actually done the after-prom thing more than once! Our rule is no alcohol; I meet the kids at the door and tell them, “I’m a teacher and I could get fired if I let you drink in my house.” Don’t know if it’s true, but it seems to work. And they stay until morning unless I call their parents to say they are on their way home.<br>
Food suggestions–for breakfast: eggy-cheesy-potato casseroles, very easy if you start with frozen hasbrowns; frozen waffles with a big bowl of sliced strawberries and spray whip cream; you can heat a lot of the waffles at once in the oven rather than using a toaster
Snacks–hearty fare–little smokies or meatballs (purchased frozen) in a crockpot with barbecue sauce, velveeta-rotel tomato sauce in a fondue pot and that layered bean dip thing with tortilla chips, flour tortillas spread with cream cheese and add deli ham or beef, then roll them up and slice or simply add another cream cheesed tortilla and cut into wedges
If it’s not too much trouble and you have forgiving neighbors, get a bed of coals going in the barbecuer and let them make s’mores on the patio–especially since it was originally going to be a campout party, the kids might like that.</p>
<p>jym - here’s a couple of tips I picked up from other mom’s over the years.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Keep them busy - have some activities that keep them so busy they don’t want to get drunk. ex. - one mom rented one of those sumo wrestler suit-up games, one had a poker tournament set up, etc.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have an outdoor entrance to the basement ( or even windows), make sure that nobody stashes alchohol in the bushes out back and retrieves it from the basement once they’ve passed the front door inspection. LOL tricky kids. One mom had a kid sneak it in as a gift wrapped present for one of the other kids - who would think to check a gift wrapped package!</p></li>
<li><p>If you have any good friends that would want to come over and play cards with you upstairs or something it would make the night go smoother for you and make a more visible presence of parental supervision, w/o hounding them. ( you know - an all-nighter for you as well)</p></li>
<li><p>We had some friends set up a little fire in the backyard and a couple of dads sat out all night and chatted. This deterred the kids from either sneaking people in/out or just going out to get high, etc. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>Boy- we sound really paranoid here !
I personally have not done any of these things because I have never been nice enough to take responsibility for one of these events. I am sure your som appreciates your efforts.
Good luck and try to have fun, too!</p>
<p>Thanks Renee and PAMom. My s is the type who will turn his nose up at my making suggestions for activities. We have a pingpong and foosball table in the basement, as ell as computer and xbox live, TV etc. We have poker sets and I will remind him to have those set up/available. It is unfortunately supposed to rain sothe outside activities may be a washout. If not, I will suggest the s’mores on the deck. Nice touch.</p>
<p>Jym626- the activities you have- look like lots of fun for high schoolers.</p>
<p>Take a deep breath- “try” to enjoy it yourself- I am well aware of the issues/ concerns involved with hosting (as you are) , and, can say PA Mom’s comment about windows in basement- is right on :)</p>
<p>And, bottom line— YOU WILL KNOW WHERE YOUR SON IS THAT NIGHT- and, in SUPERIVISED SITUATION, and isn’t that worth it?</p>
<p>
That was EXACTLY my thought when I agreed to host the party. Last year after the homecoming dance/all nite party he somehow lost his good dress shoes. HOW DO YOU LOSE YOUR SHOES??? So at least I’ll know where the new tux, tie, shoes, studs/cufflinks and MY KID are.</p>
<p>I also plan to reant a gazllion movies from blockbuster. And we will have 4 pizzas delivered at 1 a.m. Possibly chicken wings too. I plan to his Sams/Costco and stock up on chips/dip/salsa , cookies and those little brownie bites too. I have a big meeting Sat from 10-2 across town, so wont have much time to prepare during the day. Also have plans Sat night but we will get home before they do. The basement fridge is already stocked (Completely full) with soft drinks . I’ll get bottled water too.</p>
<p>We hosted after-prom parties for several years in a row. My thought was that I (and the parents of the other kids) would at least know where my d/s was!</p>
<p>My suggestions:
-know exactly who will be there and contact their parents ahead of time;
<p>I think you are doing a great thing for your kids. Just don’t back off at all on the alcohol thing…that would have been a very, very fast deal breaker for us. ALL of the kids would have been sent home after their parents were called to come and get them which would, of course, been horribly humiliating for the host/ess. This makes the kid police their friend’s behavior.</p>
<p>It was never a problem…</p>
<p>churchmusicmom-
Will you come over and stay up with me all night?? I think you are across town…</p>
<p>Jym, it will be fun. Really. You don’t need any entertainment plans. Lots of food, movies, and everyone’s happy. They will love you.</p>
<p>I may be hosting a pre-prom party, which is far more scary to me. I have to provide pretty looking food, get my house and yard in shape, flowers etc., as all these chi-chi parents and their cameras will be crawling all over it, and whispering to each other!!!</p>
<p>
<strong><em>YIKES</em></strong>!!! Now that <em>IS</em> scary!!! :eek:</p>
<p>To the mom hosting the pre prom party - don’t go all out on food. Having been to several and hosted one I have found that the kids really do not eat much, they are too excited and the girls are afraid of spilling something on their dresses. If you are having a sit down dinner for the kids, offer the girls sheets or large towels to drape over their dresses.</p>
<p>To the post prom hoster - I have not done this but my friend hosted post Homecoming parties and offers these suggestions. Have an adult male at the outside basement entrance for the first hour or so to prevent crashers. Take all keys. Lock any other rooms that are in the basement, such as guest bedroom, laundry room, except for the bathroom. Insist that some lights remain on at all times. And have your son or someone check the bathroom every 10 minutes or so to make sure only same sex people are in there. She had the difficult task of calling a friend the next day.</p>
<p>choc - didn’t you get my memo(warning) about the pre-prom party!?! </p>
<h2>You are right about the work…two weekends bedding pretty flowers for pretty pictures, tons of hors d’oeuvres that were barely touched, and missing out on all the fun hair, makeup and girly girl stuff at the salon to instead tend to hostess preparations. 15 couples translated to 30 kids, each with 2 parents (minimum, some brought siblings and grandparents) which translated to 100 people in my home. ACK!</h2>
<p>jym - Sounds like you have a good plan…just hold the line on the alcohol thing. Every year, we see parents hauled in for allowing alcohol at home parties. They always have that ‘deer in the headlights’ ‘I can’t believe this is happening to me’ expression on their face in their mugshots shown on the 6:00 p.m. news. lol! Also, my neighbor hosted a Homecoming overnight after-party for our kids. She sent the younger siblings through the gameroom/sleeping area at random intervals to keep the high school kids ‘on their toes’. ;)</p>
<p>Had a big ‘instead of Prom’ party last year and was also concerned about the drinking. I went to the local police station and told them I was having the party, what our plans were to deal with possibility of alcohol how many chaperones would be present etc. I even put ‘don’t bring and booze or we won’t let you in’ on the invite and shared that with the police too. Expressed my concerns over the possibility of being held responsible should they get it past us. Cops were great and assured me that since I had come to them ahead of time and shared our plans that should something happen they would not look at us as the providers or that we had sanctioned alcohol if they were called to the house, or got a report from neighbors. Told me to make sure I had the keys and that I called an offenders parents if they did pull one over. It gave me great peace of mind to know that they were on my side and if they had been called would not be looking at me through the guilty lens. Nothing happened, kids were great, I was exhausted!</p>
<p>I’d never seen the “hide it in a gift wrapped package”!!! Have seen the in the bushes, the “what, it’s only water!”, beer cans hidden behind books in the shelves. As a non-drinker, it is really easy for me to do the ol’ sniff test–whenever kids were over, I periodically went around and picked up cans, bottles and cups and sniffed to make sure insides matched the labels!</p>
<p>Sounds like you have a great plan. The kids will enjoy it and it will give you fun stories to share later. Honestly, I would have done it again…just my younger two weren’t as into the big group things and just had a couple same sex friends stay over after dates were done.</p>
<p>jym, what’s your stance on wireless cameras (monitoring the party)?</p>
<p>mel-
As this party is 3 days away and my life is extremely crazy right now, even if I wanted to put in cameras, there is no way to do so. And my uinitial gut reaction is “no” with respect to cameras. I’d rather they know we can, and will check in on them at any time.</p>
<p>I have sort of an opposite problem - </p>
<p>My son and his friends are confirmed non-drinkers. (Seriously, I have NO IDEA where he gets this from as we are far from teetotalers. ) As not all of his friends are seniors (he hangs with the theater kids from his all boys school and a nearby all girls school) they are a rather small group for the senior ball (maybe 5 or 6 couples) and have ended up sort of wondering what to do afterwards…I’m out of ideas.</p>
<p>weenie, with drinking not an issue, the all night stay at one of the houses might be fun—esp. if someone has a basement room with a ping pong table, somewhere to play cards, watch movies, play video games, eat, and gossip about all the happenings from the dance.</p>
<p>motherof3, that is a good idea about talking with police beforehand–will share with some friends who have present high schoolers.</p>
<p>jym, my oldest had the younger two convinced that there was a camera in the smoke detectors in basement for several years—we had a good laugh when we found out how long they believed that ruse.</p>