Follow-Up On Teens Running Wild

SephardiLady talks about the appalling teen behavior I brought up here. She feels that the problem stems from a lack of involved parenting. I'm not sure that anyone can disagree that a lack of parental supervision and involvement can have very serious consequences. In her words:

And lastly, I have never heard of sending away high schoolers on vacation sans parents. My parents never allowed me to attend a function without first speaking to the supervising parents directly. Let's just say that I was never invited to any inappropriate parties because my parents where known to be a constant presence. Are we known to be a presence in our children's lives or do we feel the need to be "cool parents?" The fact that there are masses of children on winter break without parents present is just downright shocking. It is entitlement gone wild; pure lunacy.

I do think there's a lot to be said for the "cool parent" mentality. But I think there are also parents who are trying very hard to strike the balance I spoke about in my earlier post. They are afraid of alienating their kids by being too restrictive, so they allow their children more latitude than they might be fully comfortable with. Unfortunately, if they are sending their young teens off to a Florida hotel room by themselves with no supervision whatsoever, they aren't doing their children any favors. I feel the balance has to be struck without compromising on our children's safety and security.

Jewboy seems to feel the same way when he asks: Where Are the Parents?

Harry Maryles thinks it's all a symptom of Modern Orthodoxy. I completely agree that the vast majority of kids traipsing around Florida for winter break trend toward a MO upbringing. The concept of parents sending their children off in their early teenage years to various hotels populated solely by other teens who can choose to spend their week any way they wish is simply unheard of among my children's more Yeshivish school friends. That said, uninvolved parents can exist on any observance level, and across all spectrums. No segment of our community is exempt from the risk of losing control of their children's behavior.