Smells like teen scam!

Yesterday at church my son's girlfriend came up to chat.  T is a sweet  girl and I truly love her.  I also feel for her as the family has a lot of stress right now and I think this is impacting her greatly.  However, that does not mean I will be a party to irresponsible choices so she is a sad young woman right now.  Her plan was that she and Rob would attend First Night in the city where we go to church. This is 30 minutes from our house.  When I pointed out that this meant someone would be on the road to bring Rob home at midnight and that I felt that was unsafe, she assured me that the First Night celebrations went till (wait for it.. ...) 6 a.m. when her father could conveniently run Rob home.

I could smell the teen scam a mile off but I also try to preserve teen dignity.  For all the bluster and know it all stuff that is often projected, I remember how insecure I really felt as a teen. And trust me, I was the most sarcastic know it all teen on the planet back in the day.  So instead of saying how insane that sounded, I said that the city usually had a website on the First Night and I would be happy to go look it up and check the events and the price of buttons.  Imagine my lack of surprise at finding that the city ends the event at midnight.  Who'd have thunk it?  So I facebooked her and told her what I had found and explained that it just did not look like they were running the event quite the way she thought they were. I said that I was really sorry but there was no way I would want her on the roads or that I myself wanted to be on the roads.  Getting nailed by a drunk driver is not the best way to ring in the new year.

I truly think that she knew the event went till midnight and thought that she could smuggle Rob into her house for the night.  And probably her parents would not notice right now, given what they are dealing with.  I don't think Rob is as upset about this as she is. I have tried to handle it all with kindness and respect but also with firmness.  Safety on the roads and ahem, with ones bodies, is of high import to me. I will try and make sure they get together either New Years Day or perhaps during the day on New Years Eve.  We will see how it shakes out.