Cherry – you are right; I don’t want my kids to live by diifernt standards than I do. Of course, I can drive a car, and my 15 year old cannot; there are certain things that are age appropriate. Can socializing / time off / time to chill out is one of them. Does a teen need the same ammount of down time as his parents do? Probably not. But they surely need time to unwind, and a change of scenery is part of that unwinding process. We fully understand the need for limits; speed limits, deadlines, expiration dates,ect. Teens know this too. But testing those limits is what helps them grow to be self disiplined. I cannot shadow my boys every step of the way. But I do hope they have a little bit of me in them, so they can choose wisely (or go to plan b, when plan a fails!)
Wolf – welcome to my (and many CR members) world! Parenting teens was described to be as crossing a frozen river; you need to step very carfully, becuase one wrong move and you both wind up in the water. Stopping (or not crossing) is not an option; you and your teen need to move forward. Both of you want to accomplish the same goal; but as a parent, you need to be the voice of reason (Although from your posts, you seem to have things under control 🙂