Teens and Curfews
Do you have a teenager with a curfew? Are you a teen who has a curfew?
It’s been awhile since my son lived with me. He’s 24 now and lives on his own.
He still stays up all night on occasion.
Did I set curfews? No. I probably was one of the few parents around that didn’t.
Right about now, if you are a teen, you are probably wishing you had a parent like me.
If you are a parent reading this, you are probably saying “What in the WORLD was she thinking?”
Let me explain.
I never would have suspected I’d say that as a parent. After all, I have been a school counselor for years and saw teenagers get in some pretty big trouble staying out all night. I mean, the world is a bad place at night. Right?
As a baby, Pierce Cook was always inquisitive. So when his father handed three year old Pierce a camera, it wasn’t a surprise he asked lots of questions about it and fanaticized about making movies like Steven Spielberg.
Soon he was taking pictures regularly and within a few years, he had a video camera planted firmly in his little hands. One would often see him making “movies” of things like a wind-up plastic Christmas tree disappearing down the toilet with the Wizard of Oz wicked witch of the west theme song playing in the background as the tree said “I’m melting, I’m melting.” Within seconds the tree would appear at the front of the house jumping from the ditch saying “let me in, let me in!”
There was also the infamous movie “HamsterAnna Jones” where he took his loveable Hamster, Sylvester, complete with a little bandana carefully tied around his neck, and had him riding in a wild runaway coal car attached to his electric train.
Pierce saw Jurassic Park 18 times. Some thought that was obsessive. He smiled confidently when he heard those comments. Pierce knew it was because he was watching each filming angle to see if he could reproduce it with his toy dinosaurs.
Yes, Pierce kept everyone entertained with that camera. He became a college student in the 10th grade just so he could take a filmmaking class at Trident Tec. He went on to become the youngest student taking an adult filmmaking class with the SC Arts Commission Southeastern Film Institute. While other high school students were relaxing over the summer, Pierce attended filmmaking classes at the NC School of Performing Arts or was filming his first full length movie and using our house as one of the sets.
As a teen and during the time when most other parents were imposing curfews on their teenagers, I never worried where Pierce and his friends were. They could be filming well into the night and editing the rest as they carefully created sound effects for the footage they shot.
All this said, I think when you have teenagers with a healthy passion or involvement in something they love; you often don’t have to worry about a curfew. He never gave me any thought of not trusting him, and he has grown up to be a healthy young man to this day.
My wish for you today is that, if you are a parent, that you never feel the need to set a curfew. If you are a teenage, my wish for you today is that you never give your parents a reason to think you need a curfew…and that you will be responsible with your freedoms as you mature.
~ Joellen