Fatherhood anonymous; an open discussion on being a dad.
My 17 year old son wants to spend the night at his girlfriend’s house on Sat night. He says her mom will be out of town and she (gf’s mom) told him she’d feel better if he spent the night there.
I can go to the work of validating all that if I feel like I need to. It’s a small enough town/area that won’t be that hard. So set that aside….
My initial reaction is “hell no.” And I realize that’s mostly reactive so I think about it more and still can’t rationalize myself to a “yes” that I feel good about. But I also am having a hard time clearly articulating why “no” is my decision.
The kid is pretty open that they’re sexually active. It’s not a new relationship. He’s reasonably responsible, for a 17yo. She’s on birth control. Etc etc. I still just can’t get there.
How much of that is hang up and how much of that is actually reasonable parenting?
Fatherhood anonymous; an open discussion on being a dad.
Have you all run into the families who are ultra over-scheduled and almost seem proud or are smug about it? The ones whose kids are doing 2-3 team sports at the same time and their entire existence outside of school is practice and games? Weekdays are spent at multiple practices in different sports in different locations each night; weekends are spent going from one game in one sport to another game in another sport in a totally different location or traveling. Seems like a horrible existence but they act like this is the way and they’ll do anything for their kids and their kids love it so….
Fatherhood anonymous; an open discussion on being a dad.
Yeah, I’m getting there. Just hard to wrap my head around given my Uber conservative upbringing.
New developments indicate that this is a party that mom and gf are planning for him. If the birthday party present includes an empty house and her daughter, well…. That just seems weird and I’m struggling with how to feel about that too. It isn’t different in material ways, but it is….