Parents: The Right PROMise Can Go a Long Way

Prom is an event all high schoolers should experience.  

If not for anything else, there's the comedy factor.

There's nothing more memorable than having those photos 20 years later of the big dresses and cummerbunds and even bigger hair. Those are the kinds of photos that keep Facebook thriving.

But prom is a treasured event for many reasons. A lot of us can remember our pounding hearts as we worked up the courage to ask that certain someone to go.

And who can forget that final dance with your high school sweetheart?

Prom usually includes some kind of special car or limo ride involving close friends sharing one final special moment in high school.

But that's when things can go wrong. Parents may spend more time worrying if their digital camera batteries are charged, than what actually will happen that night.

We're not talking bird and bees stuff.

We're talking drinking and drugs.

And kids routinely use them in limos and hotels.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help when parents think that binge drinking or drug use is a rite of passage for teens on prom night.

Just because kids are "not driving" that's not a legitimate excuse to provide for them a bounty of alcohol.  

Neither a limousine nor a hotel room can protect your child where binge drinking and drug use occurs.

Parents need to talk to their kids and let them know that not only is underage drinking and drug use illegal, it is not tolerated within the family.

Parents should be interacting with other parents within the group to ensure that everyone agrees on this.

If you have five couples attending prom in a limo, it doesn't matter what nine of those families think if one family allows or provides alcohol.

Teens will pre-stock their alcohol supply for weeks to make sure they have more than enough for the big dance. They will ask older siblings, older friends, even strangers to buy for them.

And while some schools test for alcohol or drug use upon entering a school function, many do not test.

You will often see many of these kids using these nights as a "hall pass" to drink excessively. They may show up at the dance, snap a photo or two, and then leave without eating or stepping onto the floor.

I know.  

That's what my friends and I did in high school.    

And we weren't the only ones.    

Parents need to remember that it's not just the "bad kids" who take safe events and make them unsafe.

Good kids can sometimes make bad decisions.

Parents need to have discussions leading up to these events, and make sure their message of sobriety is clear.

Parents should get the promise that their teen will be safe.    

After all, prom is supposed to be one of your last great memories of high school and your adolescence.

It's not supposed to be your last memory ever.