by Naomi Oakley, Founder, Safe Partying Australia.
As teen parties get bigger, riskier and more elaborate, host parents are finding there’s extra help at hand: other parents and responsible (i.e. mature, sober) adults.
This is good news, as parents planning teen events need all the help they can get.
They also need to realise some really important points.
Key among these is the ratio of parents to kids.
Numbers game
If you work on 1 parent for every 15-20 kids, you take a massive step in the right direction.
This manageable ratio means you can task parents to areas that invariably cause problems, like:
- Monitor toilets and bathrooms to prevent these areas being trashed.
- Observe bedrooms to discourage unwanted activity.
- Manage the alcohol area for reasons too important and numerous to list!
- Patrol fences and other perimeter areas to thwart gatecrashers.
On the list
Another vital thing is to ensure you have the guest list at least 3 days before the event and DO NOT allow any more names to be added.
As the host parent, it’s up to YOU to provide a safe environment for the kids and security staff who come to your home or other venue.
If you tell me you’re having 100 kids, I’ll tell you to have 2 crowd control professionals and 5 parents.
I know this for a fact, because I’ve kept more than 700 teen events incident free.
Some host parents agree to my recommendation.
But when my staff and I arrive at their event, we often find 140 kids and only 2 parents.
This not only infuriates me, it puts everyone in and around the party in danger.
Here’s how.
Eight steps to chaos
- You can NOT manage a bar with just two parents.
- Your two security staff (if you’re wise enough to book them) will have their hands full securing your front door, enforcing your guest list and searching for drugs and alcohol.
- With no adults available to check your perimeter, unwanted guests will stream over the back fence like rodents.
- People will start vomiting on couches and behind doors.
- Fights will start to simmer all over the place.
- The situation will become volatile, needing just a small push to become an all-in brawl.
- With no parents to stop them, your back-door gatecrashes will start trashing your home.
- With the now adults totally outnumbered, you’ll then blame me and my staff for not entering your home to sort out your self-made disaster (and cop a bottle in the head for our trouble).
Get the picture?
I sure hope so, as I’m NOT making this up.
Your move
I can’t force you to do the right thing.
As a ‘grown-up’, you’re free to make your own mistakes.
But if you do, you may not only harm yourself, your kids, your possessions and your home.
You may also risk the lives of others – along with the chronic and crippling legal, financial and moral consequences of your arrogance, carelessness and stupidity.
So by all means do your own thing, if you must.
But when all hell breaks loose at your event, don’t you dare try to pass the buck.
KNOW THAT THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME IS YOU!
If, on the other hand, you decide to take a reasonable and responsible approach to hosting a teen party, read my positive proposal for change.
It’s all there.
