In Reply to: fantastic read, can I ask posted by balifan on Tuesday, 12. June 2007 at 21:53 Bali Time:
You couldnt find a more paranoid, over protective mum than me. Just ask my kids. I wasnt overjoyed about them going out without us. If we had said NO, they would not have liked our decision but they would have conformed. On our first night we met a lovely family from Adelaide. Their boys are 17 & 21, ours are 17 & 23 so it probably made it a little easier (safety in numbers, I always say) We laid down the ground rules, dont leave one another, all come back together, be sensible etc. The other family had been there a few days before us and had met up with a local, so there was 5 in all. Our boys also met some other teens on our plane who kept us amused by passing notes via us to some teen girls across the aisle. We had a ton of fun and passed the time away chatting. They all seemed really nice (no parents). I think in our case the situation was a little different because they had all met up early on. I cant say I would feel the same if it was just my 17 yr old. It will be a hard one for you to feel comfortable with. Others may tell you, do what you would do at home, but honestly, its so hard, we're all on holidays and yes they'll want to move the goalposts way out of the boundaries. The one thing I can tell you is, for some strange reason, I felt more at ease with the kids in Bali than I ever would here in Sydney. To some, that may sound naive. I certainly would have reacted negatively here if my kids stayed out till all hours and then got doubled (tripled) home on the back of a motorbike. I doubt that they would even contemplate it here in Australia. Hopefully your son will meet others and will have a great time. Either way, do what you feel comfortable with and remind your son, that as its your holiday too, you'd like to be stress free !!! Cheers. Diane