Did you have a curfew? Were your parents strict?

[Smurfysmiles]

Omigosh don't even get me STARTED!!! I had to be home by 10, had chores, was constantly in trouble for not having a clean bedroom, etc. etc. I remember once I got in HUGE trouble because a friend of mine wanted to go to an early movie and only had a gift card to target with 5 dollars left on it. I had 10 dollars so I paid for us both and he gave me the gift card because I had to go to target the next day anyways. I remember my dad FLIPPED and I was never allowed to see him again (well of course i did anyways lol) I remember sneaking out of my bedroom to go over to the neighbors house in the night to hang out or go rollerblading or whatever. I think the thing that stuck out the most though was that I wasn't free to explore religion. My dad (obviously he was the enforcer when i was growing up) but he had found some print outs from the computer about another religion I was interested in learning about and he tore all my posters off my wall whilst yelling at me. I know parents read what I write on here so: dad I'm not badmouthin ya, just had a stricter childhood than most kids or at least I think I did.

 

[iheartscience]

Zoe-your parents' curfew idea wouldn't have worked on me! I had a ton of friends who had no curfew at all. (Including the one whose parents threw him a field party with a bonfire and several kegs when he turned 18. To be fair his dad did collect every set of keys and I had to BEG to get mine back and have his wife intervene because he didn't believe that I hadn't been drinking!)

I think my curfew was probably midnight-ish. My parents weren't super strict, really. My twin sister and I are the youngest of 5 and they were tired by the time we came along! Luckily we didn't take advantage of that too much.

Plus my sister was basically my chaperone and designated driver, so I still had supervision of some form when I was out partying.

During the week we didn't do much because we played soccer and field hockey so we had practice for 2-3 hours after school every day. We mostly went out on Friday and Saturday night and got into trouble. I grew up in a rural area so we could just say we were going downtown or to the mall and then do whatever we wanted!

 

[marcy]

Not really. I didn''t get in trouble, I am quite a few years younger than my sisters and I never required much sleep. My parents figured as long as I wasn''t in trouble and could get up and go to school the next day then I could stay out as long as I wanted.

 

[pinkstars]

I don''t remember having a curfew. My mom was very trusting of me, and I''m so thankful she was! By the time I had a car and could really "go out" places, we lived in a cul de sac with everybody I hung out with living there too. So I didn''t have anywhere to go to stay out late, eh we did drive to where people would race but I truly cannot remember having to be home at a certain time.
I definitely had chores, but I think they were all within reason. Plus what else would I do if I wasn''t helping cleaning the house?

 

[zoebartlett]

Wow, some of you had pretty strict parents!

Renee and SS -- one day grounded for each MINUTE you were late coming home?! Yeah, that's pretty strict. By the way, Renee, you mentioned that your dad was the advance lead for 2 presidents. What does that mean? It's pretty cool to be on the detail (?) of the commander in chief, or 2!

Count me in as one of those people who was usually just hanging out at a friend's house. I would get in trouble for other things, but not for being a wild child. If knew I'd be out later than I had told my parents I'd be, I made sure to call my parents and let them know. As NEL said, I think it was a freedom of responsibility thing.

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

My mom raised my two brothers and I. I''d say she was pretty strict. I wasn''t allowed to date until I was 16, not even group dates to the movies. My curfew was always 11:00, even when I was a senior in HS. When I was in college and I was home and wanted to go out I didn''t have a curfew necessarily, but I was expected to let her know what time I''d be home and then to be home by that time or else.

 

[nytemist]

The only curfew I had was as a child, you know- back in the day when you had to be home by the time the streetlights we coming on. As I got older, my dad was ok with me being out or hanging out at a friend''s house. To him, all that mattered was if I was doing well in school, not causing any trouble (not serious anyway) or doing anything that would get me arrested, things were pretty open for me. But even getting into typical teen situations I would always think ''what happens if dad finds out about this? Would he just be upset, yell or would there be the look?''

 

[Lilac]

In the beginning of high school I rarely went out late at night (I mostly stuck to days after school and weekends), so I don''t think the topic of a curfew even came up. The last two years of high school and then in college when I lived at home I went out with DH (then obviously he was my boyfriend

) and at the beginning of our relationship I didn''t have a curfew. Then my mom decided I shouldn''t be out so late so she made the curfew midnight during the week and 2:00 in the morning on Saturday nights. I never stayed out until midnight during the week, but the curfew meant that if he had been over watching movies or something he would have to leave by then. The 2am curfew on weekends was something I aimed to be home by but sometimes missed by a couple minutes. My mom goes to sleep a lot earlier than me, so she never even knew when I was 5 or 10 minutes late. At the time I thought my mom was being a little strict with the midnight/2am curfews, but even now just a couple years later I realize she was pretty reasonable/lenient!

I think the reason my mom was so flexible with curfew time and things like that was because she knew I wouldn''t take advantage and wouldn''t stay out really late anyway. I was always a rule-follower so she trusted me to do what was right (which I did do most of the time). I never hung out with "bad influences", I didn''t drink or do drugs, and I came home early most of the time because I was just *worried* about getting in trouble for being out late (even if I didn''t really have to be worried). So my mom made a "curfew time" but never really enforced it too harshly because she trusted me and knew I would do the right thing. And the only person I went out with late at night was my boyfriend who my mom adored anyway.

 

[packrat]

SS-if you tell me your parents are Jim and Jo I''m seriously going to wonder if I have a sister out there somewhere! They did the day grounding for every minute late too!

One time, my cousin and I got seatbelt tickets, in a different town so it wasn''t in our local paper. However, my grandparents lived in that town, and they called mom. Mom asked about it, and showed it to me in the paper-I said "Oh no, that wasn''t me" She''s like uh huh, that was a different Melissa X X and Dena X X? Um, yes, yes, it was Mom. Grounded for 2 weeks for that. 1 week for the ticket, one week for lying.

I was only allowed to drive to work and back, during my grounding, so she figured I wouldn''t be able to go out at night. One afternoon she saw me getting ready to go out and she''s like "Where are YOU going? You''re grounded remember?" I said "I''m going out w/Dena tonight" "Nope, you can only drive to work and back if you recall" "Yes, so I''m driving my car to work and Dena is picking me up!" HAHAHAHAHAHA I came home to a revised list of what was covered under the grounding.

Mom used to fall asleep on the living room floor while watching tv a lot, so if I came home late, I''d hurry and get ready for bed and change the channel or put a movie in and fast forward it and then make a production about ohh I''m so tired I need to go to bed, so she''d wake up and think I''d been home that whole time.

Ahhh memories!

 

[innerkitten]

My parents weren''t very strict. I did cook dinner for the whole house once a week followed by a dishes night the next day starting at 12 till I moved out at 18. But as far as curfews went. My mother pretty much let me out whenever I wanted and when I was a teen I didn''t have to be home till 2am on weekends! My daughter will not have a 2am curfew when she''s a teen. I plan to have far more limits than my parents.

 

[innerkitten]

Date: 5/10/2010 10:57:37 AM
Author: redfaerythinker
The only curfew I had was state mandated. Anyone under 18 had to be home by midnight. And my parents were super strict. I was grounded for about six months because I got a D for the first time my senior year.

They were also really overprotective, for example I had a babysitter until I was 14. I''m pretty sure everyone else was babysitting at that time.

They had a city curfew here too. It was 11pm and as a result my friends and I were escorted home several times by the police for being out past curfew.

It''s interesting that you still had a babysitter at 14. My parents were the opposite. I remember they went away for the weekend and left me at 14. I think that was lame of them. I would never leave my daughter ( when she''s 14 ) alone for a weekend. It''s asking for trouble plus it was lonely.

 

[Stone Hunter]

No curfew. I did stay out really late a couple of times but I never was doing anything "bad". I had good friends that never drank and then drove. I think having friends with good judgement is very important.

As for strict my parents always had to know where I was going and who I was with. I was allowed to go lots of places so I don''t think I ever lied about where I was going or who I was with.