The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Parents
One mom of three teens has garnered a lot of attention for her solution to the struggle of teen curfews.
No, she isn’t reinventing anything; she’s simply turning the idea of the time by which her children need to be home on its head by instituting a “leave by” curfew.
The idea is simple. As Trask goes on to detail in her post, telling her teens that they need to leave to come home by a certain time is a far safer approach than asking them to walk in the door at an exact time.
“I remember being a teen speeding and ignoring stop signs in order to get home by my curfew,” she recalls.
So, she gives her kids a “leave by” curfew. Trask can monitor her teens’ progress via a location sharing app as they travel. Meanwhile, the teens aren’t feeling pressured to drive as fast as possible to get home.
The “leave by” curfew is not consequence-free, Trask wants detractors to know. But ultimately, it all comes down to communication. If her teen stops to drop a friend at home, they just have to let her know.
“I’ve learned that if my end goals are for my kids to learn responsibility, respect, and to be safe, then open communication and some flexibility are crucial,” Trask explains.