Friday Family Matters...

What are you doing this fine long weekend with your family? I hope the weather stays nice, otherwise its going to be a movie marathon weekend! Kailey swam today, the pool was heated to 81 degrees, it was beautiful.
Well technically, Fridays are to discuss something going on in everyday life relating to family, friends, kids or marriage. To be honest I have nothing prepared, but alot on my mind. I will say though that the number one topic in this house related to our children is underage drinking.
Unfortuantely we are hitting the dreaded age of teenagers and parties. It started this week, when we heard that some kids were discussing drinking at a grade 8 graduation party. I mean, its gonna happen...really if they want to drink, they will find a way to do it! Things are just to accessible these days. Thankfully the family hosting this grad party is well aware of the discussions, and are taking charge and preparing with precautions just to be sure no little minors end up with fuzzy tongues!
I have a hard time with this topic, I still feel that they are too young to even be thinking about drinking...but realistically they are heading into grade 9 in September. So, with that said I cannot be naive to believe Kailey will not be introduced to this! I would love to just protect her, keep her home and stop her from any under age behaviour...but I am a big believer in the fact that she needs to learn to handle herself in these situations, not hide from them.
I suppose its our job as parents to put boundries, rules and regulations on our children but still provide them the space to learn, make mistakes and have fun.
Paul and I both feel that we are capable of providing both our children with the tools they need to seek out young adult hood with strength, smarts and responsibility. I mean..really, its all we can do right? Give them all the information that they need, obviously set the boundaries for safety reasons and hope for the best. I don't suspect that I will need to worry to much right now, we have pretty good communication and she is very level headed and has a great group of friends. I stay very active with her friends, I know all of them and even all their parents, plus I have awesome communication with the parents!
I must say, I think i am pretty lucky..I love all her friends and the parents are pretty awesome too!
I guess grade nine will be something new and exciting, I hope that Kailey can balance all the things that are important but still have fun doing so.
I will say one thing, I sure like having the kids at my house...I guess its because I feel that I have a bit more control with whats happening. I suppose that goes with being an "Over Motherer?" LOL..
Well regardless of what happens, Paul and I will do our very best with being fair and reasonable but yet...in control! Paul is having a harder time with this growing up stuff, he struggles actually more than I do, especially with Kailey. As long as I approach him with caution and knowledge, he usually see's things objectively.

Technically this is a topic that I wouldn't even touch on my blog without some sort of research and statistics however it is late, so I am just writing about my feelings with the topic.