Teen Scene: Dear Mom And Dad, Make My Curfew Later!

This is an open plea to my parents to make my curfew later. This may not be a popular subject with Moms and Dads out there, but I think the kids reading will agree.

IT’S OK TO STAY OUT LATE!!

For five of seven days each week, kids work hard at school. Broken pencils, stray papers, and demanding teachers shove knowledge into our brains all day for the majority of the week. It becomes very exhausting. I wonder how much I will remember later of what I learn now. I know that when I ask my parents questions about my homework I get more blank stares than answers.

There are many things I’d rather be doing than sitting in a chair for seven hours being talked at. Then I go home and study and do homework. There’s no time for fun on the weekdays; the closest thing to fun is a nap and an after school snack or, if it’s softball season, practice (so much fun!).

That’s why we have the weekend. The only thing getting us through that repetitive, dreadful week is the thought of the weekend; the two days we have to kick back and not worry about homework or tests or teachers. Until Sunday night, that is.

Without the weekend, kids would be walking zombies. But why is it that school consumes five days of our week and leaves us with only two for the weekend? And why is it that when we reach the weekend and get a chance to catch our breath, parents still insist on giving kids a certain time to be home?

I, personally, do not believe in a curfew. At school, I don’t have time to talk to my friends. I have no classes with them, no lunch with them, and seeing them in the hallway is rare. I just want to have time to catch up on my week with my friends and all a curfew does is stress a kid out.

We should be able to stay out late and make memories with the people we enjoy being with. That’s what childhood is! The whole point is to enjoy it and have fun.

When I’m my parents’ ages, I’ll remember and laugh at all the good times I spent with my friends and the fun weekends we had more than France’s government in the 1500s.

My curfew is 11:30 p.m. and to parents that may seem like plenty of time but it really, truly isn’t. My Mom’s theory is that “nothing good happens after 11,” but
that’s completely false. I’m doing the same thing at 12 that I am at 11.

Curfew adds extra mental demands on a kid. All night, having to figure out a ride and not be late, so your parents don’t yell at you when you get home. Then all of a sudden it’s 11:15 and I still haven’t found a ride but wherever I am is too far away to walk, so I have to call my parents just to have them pick me up and yell at me for not finding another ride.

What do you expect from me?! It’s a lose-lose situation. I understand my parents’ point of view that they don’t want to have to wait up for me to get home. So here’s my advice to Momma and Pops: Go to sleep if you must. I’ll keep in touch, and I’ll let you know when I’m coming home and how I’m getting there. What do you have to worry about? 

High school is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I can’t help but feel like that as I waste my life away on the school nights, I’m also wasting my life away on the weekend. Time is just a number, folks. As long as a kid is getting good grades, staying out of trouble, and being safe, why not reward us with a couple more hours to have some laughs with their best friends?

Consider it, Mom and Dad. All I want is another 30 minutes—not to do something wrong, but to enjoy the friends in Havertown who help make my teen-age years so much fun.