Crazy night, anyone in the mood for an mcloud story...

[ImcLoud]

So last night we stayed home and had a few friends over, in lieu of our original plans, well not completely, we had a masquerade party to attend and we did }its fun to get dressed up}, but we didn't stay until midnight, it started at noon and ended at 1am, and this was the first new year my son {who will be 16 shortly} went out for new years without us, he has a girlfriend now, who turns 18 in a couple weeks and drives. She lives about 15 minutes from us, we know her family, and she was having a party at their house, so we let him go with no supervision... Well I wanted to be around since he wasn't going to be home until 12:30...

Anyway he ended up calling me for a ride, he hadn't been drinking but a lot of other kids {18 and up, he was the youngest there} were, so I pulled up to the house with one of my buddies who was still at my house when he called me, I could tell something was wrong on the phone, but it didn't seem dire...

My son and his girlfriend met us at the gate and I could tell something was wrong... Most of her friends are 18 since she is a senior and she had not drank at all, but the party that I thought her parents were going to be home for was not as kosher as I was first led to believe. It turned out they had told her she could have my son, her best friend, and her cousin over ONLY. So they jumped in the jeep with us and as I drove down the driveway and there was at least 10 cars there!!! And lots of kids...

So somehow one of the kids got a hold of 4 bottles of potato vodka {I never seen it before but it was in plastic gallon jugs!!!}, there was empty cranberry and orange juice containers with 3 empty gallons of this vodka... The kids were all trashed, I took my son aside and I could tell he hadn't touched it, but he did tell me he had the orange juice, so I thought he ment with vodka, so now I am pissed {turned out he just had oj with no vodka}...

I had my buddy Chris move the jeep so no one could drive away, and we got everything under control, I called her parents and they are in NEW YORK!!! They wanted me to call the cops, but I convinced them we could deal with it, I called my wife to come over because there were some kids already getting sick, and we are talking 85lb 17 year old girls, that drank a liter of vodka and I didn't want to see anyone die...

When my wife and Gina got there {both in medical field} we had everything sorted out, we had all the keys and there were 2 kids that were driving and did not drink at all, actually out of the entire party 5 kids hadn't had a sip liquor.... We let them and the kids who were not trashed leave, so we now had 14 kids that were too drunk to let leave or had their car there and had drank...

So my wife and Gina looked over everyone and we ended up calling an ambulance because 2 of the girls were not doing well, PLUS since they are in the medical field there are a lot of responsibilities/liabilities they have that a normal person does not. I knew both paramedics that showed up and they ended up taking 3 of the kids by ambulance, 1 of the girls was not really responding and had erratic breathing.

So now its 2am and we are left with a handful of kids, me and chris took a couple home, and a few others parents showed up or called when they seen their kids were not home by 1 am. The last few we ended up taking back to their homes and driving their cars for them. And my sons girlfriends parents were on their way home. We locked up the house and my sons girl texted him around 5am to say her parents got there and she was in "HUGE" trouble...

So my son came down for breakfast this morning and asked if he was in trouble, I said "you should have known better, why would you let everything get so out of hand, why wouldn't you call me?", his mother interjected that he was by far the youngest there, and he would be teased because he called his dad, and blah blah blah", her normal sticking up for the kids routine... This pissed me off because I am trying to raise the kids so they understand it doesn't matter what people think when it comes to doing the right thing, whats right is right, no matter the consequence...

So I said "do you think kids are going to tease you now because I showed up, and he said "NO, almost everyone was telling me to call you". At least my son, 2 of his friends, his girl, and her cousin were smart enough to see it was out of control, they didn't let anyone leave and they didn't tell anyone I was on my way. So I told him he wasn't in trouble, but he just proved that I have to keep a closer eye on him, this wasn't the 5th or 6th time I let him attend a late night party it was the first, so the second wont be for a long time...
He agreed that was fair and said his girlfriend is punished until further notice, I told him to get a new girlfriend until she isn't punished anymore {my wife didn't like that, lol}...

Now just while I was typing this post I have gotten 4 phone calls, 3 from parents thanking me and wanting to know the details and 1 from one of the kids that was there and got a little ignorant with my wife wanting to apologise for his stupidity. There were only 2 kids that were being aggressive, both 18 and both on my sons football team, one spit at Chris {who was a UC linebacker in his college days} and he said "is this kid serious?" I could tell he wanted to smash him but I quickly explained that we are better than that, Im not going to beat up a couple teenagers, lol... The kid who called to apologise thanked me for not taking him apart, and thanked me for not telling his parents how he was acting, it was impressive of him to be smart enough to know he should give me a call and it shows character that he is embarrassed. I asked if he wanted to talk to my wife, since he was being ignorant to her, and he said he was embarrassed and would rather do it in person next time he sees her...

So they are in no way BAD kids, just acted stupid... My buddy was taking things personally and I explained these aren't punk kids, they are drunk and don't know what they are doing... Hopefully everyone learned a lesson and they got it out of their systems, it was a long night, and now my son is walking on eggshells because I can tell he doesn't think he got punished enough, the truth of the matter is I am so happy he called me, I can't call it proud, because he could have dealt with it better, my wife says that is a bad way to look at it but its the truth, he could have called me earlier before it got out of hand, and I would have figured it out, I would have sent a friend of mine who is a local trooper to break it up with no report... They would have took the booze and been done with it, before everyone was drunk and sick...

So that is the start of my new year, although breakfast was delicious, stuffed apple pancakes and blueberry syrup.... I am going to have a talk with my son this weekend when we go hunting about hanging out with older kids, he always says he doesn't like hanging around the kids that are his own age, and he feels older than 15, but I think its a better idea for him to get some friends his own age...

 

[Chu Gai]

Digital breathalyzer, $6 shipped.

http://www.gearxs.com/Stay-Safe-Digital-Breathalyzer-Alcohol-Breath-Tester?src=email

 

[Jeepers]

Wow ...what a night.

Let's hope this doesn't affect the relationship between your son and his girlfriend.

 

[Chu Gai]

What could possibly go wrong when the parents aren't there?

 

[GO-NAD!]

So last night ...

Overall, I think your son acted very responsibly. I wouldn't be that upset with him if I were you.

For one thing, being the youngest person there - and there is a significant difference between 15 and 18 - there would be a lot of pressure on him to fit in with the older kids, i.e. get hammered along with them. But, he didn't drink at all. And, although it was a bit late, he did call you. He did the right thing, but his timing was a bit off - I cut him some slack for that.

Plus, it wasn't his house and he wasn't the host, so I don't think he was obligated to look after a bunch of kids who are older than him. I'd give him points for recognizing that there was a lot of potential for serious grief amongst the other kids - car accidents and/or alcohol poisoning.

If he was my kid, I'd be quite pleased with him, overall. I just wouldn't too effusive with praise, just so he doesn't take it all too lightly.

 

[ParadigmDawg]

How are kids going to make mistakes and learn from them with you getting in the way. I grew up just fine without you...ummm...never mind...good job....

 

[ImcLoud]

Overall, I think your son acted very responsibly. I wouldn't be that upset with him if I were you.

For one thing, being the youngest person there - and there is a significant difference between 15 and 18 - there would be a lot of pressure on him to fit in with the older kids, i.e. get hammered along with them. But, he didn't drink at all. And, although it was a bit late, he did call you. He did the right thing, but his timing was a bit off - I cut him some slack for that.

Plus, it wasn't his house and he wasn't the host, so I don't think he was obligated to look after a bunch of kids who are older than him. I'd give him points for recognizing that there was a lot of potential for serious grief amongst the other kids - car accidents and/or alcohol poisoning.

If he was my kid, I'd be quite pleased with him, overall. I just wouldn't too effusive with praise, just so he doesn't take it all too lightly.

I agree, and I admit I tend to be too hard on my oldest son, my father who was super hard on me, often comes to his defense, which may piss me off more, because he was worse than me on his happiest day... But what happens now is he knows grandpa will side with him so he gives him a call when ever he is in trouble..
So, I get a call from my father, telling me how I should not have let me 15 year old go to a party with 18-25 year olds, which there were no 25 year olds there, oldest I seen was 19-ish, they are seniors in his high school he is a sophomore, not a HUGE leap...
But my father isn't the first to bring this up, others have noticed the age difference, but its the nature of his situation, he has been playing varsity football since he was a freshman, so his friends are teammates and they are all juniors and seniors, he still talks to a couple of last years grads here and there. So his girlfriend is a senior his friends are all 17-18 he will be 16 in 3-4 months, so its not a huge stretch but I do agree, 15-18 is a huge difference, probably larger than 21-30...

I did have a talk with him and told him he did good but could have done better. He told me he knew it right away. He knew it was a lot of liquor for a handful of teenagers, and he did convince a bunch of them to stop drinking once they had a couple drinks in a short amount of time, he also said he convinced one of the other older kids to make everyone give there keys if they wanted to drink.
I asked how and who, and he said he told the kid Josh who brought the liquor and a lot of the other kids follow, that if someone gets killed driving on the vodka he brought he would get in trouble for it and hes 19 so he would get in real trouble, plus he didnt want to see anyone get hurt. He said he could tell it clicked in Josh's head and Josh announced "anyone that wants vodka and drives has to give me their keys", thats when my sons girlfriend said, well your drinking too, give the keys to me and your keys too...

I was proud he had the sense to do that... I guess all in all it could have been a lot worse, and he handled it well enough that no one got hurt..

 

[ImcLoud]

How are kids going to make mistakes and learn from them with you getting in the way. I grew up just fine without you...ummm...never mind...good job....

lol, I am for the most part the type of parent that wants my kids to learn on their own, BUT times have changed, and I didn't go over there to check on them or spy on them, he called me in, I wish he did it sooner, but alls well that ends well... I don't want to see anyone get hurt and when I was a kid we lost more than our share of classmates to car accidents, my brothers class lost 6 in one accident!!! All under 18, 2 cars following each other home from a party full of kids, both drivers lived, if you can call it that...

Most kids just don't have the common sense to stop drinking when they start, so the end results are never good. I know a few adults that once they have more than a couple they don't know enough to stop, dui aside, there are a lot of dangers that come with underage drinking, kids suffocate in their sleep, drown in puddles, freeze to death in the snow, drink themselves into coma's, ect.. Its just not going to end well even if they are walking home...

I am hoping my son seen his friends all throwing up and stupid and now respects liquor and never does it himself...

 

[tcarcio]

You did the right thing and so did your son, in the long run. I would be proud of him, You got a pretty smart son there.

 

[GO-NAD!]

I agree, and I admit I tend to be too hard on my oldest son, my father who was super hard on me, often comes to his defense, which may piss me off more, because he was worse than me on his happiest day... But what happens now is he knows grandpa will side with him so he gives him a call when ever he is in trouble..
So, I get a call from my father, telling me how I should not have let me 15 year old go to a party with 18-25 year olds, which there were no 25 year olds there, oldest I seen was 19-ish, they are seniors in his high school he is a sophomore, not a HUGE leap...
But my father isn't the first to bring this up, others have noticed the age difference, but its the nature of his situation, he has been playing varsity football since he was a freshman, so his friends are teammates and they are all juniors and seniors, he still talks to a couple of last years grads here and there. So his girlfriend is a senior his friends are all 17-18 he will be 16 in 3-4 months, so its not a huge stretch but I do agree, 15-18 is a huge difference, probably larger than 21-30...

I did have a talk with him and told him he did good but could have done better. He told me he knew it right away. He knew it was a lot of liquor for a handful of teenagers, and he did convince a bunch of them to stop drinking once they had a couple drinks in a short amount of time, he also said he convinced one of the other older kids to make everyone give there keys if they wanted to drink.
I asked how and who, and he said he told the kid Josh who brought the liquor and a lot of the other kids follow, that if someone gets killed driving on the vodka he brought he would get in trouble for it and hes 19 so he would get in real trouble, plus he didnt want to see anyone get hurt. He said he could tell it clicked in Josh's head and Josh announced "anyone that wants vodka and drives has to give me their keys", thats when my sons girlfriend said, well your drinking too, give the keys to me and your keys too...

I was proud he had the sense to do that... I guess all in all it could have been a lot worse, and he handled it well enough that no one got hurt..

Holy cr@p, your kid is a freakin' hero! To have that level of judgement at that age and be able to convince those older kids to do as he suggested - kudos to him.

 

[ImcLoud]

Thanks guys, he is a really good boy, my youngest on the other hand is a demon sometimes, lol... We are lucky with both of them though. When we go out to eat I have to wait while my sons hold the doors for everyone walking in or out, when a woman gets up from the table my boys instinctively stand up at the same time, people get a kick out of it and it makes me smile. His girlfriends father came over yesterday {I wasn't home} and picked my son up because my son went over to help clean some marks that were made on the walls and floors during the party, when he dropped him back off I was taking groceries out of the trunk for my wife and he walked over to chat with me, he raved about how respectful, considerate, intelligent, and polite my son is, he is hoping him and his daughter are together forever, I just smiled and shook my head, I said "they are young, its a little early to think about that"... Not that she isn't a great kid, but I wouldn't be heart broken if he moved on shortly, my wife says I am evil for saying that, but whatever... and I know she thinks the same thing.................. she just wont say it out loud