My first born has survived his week without me. In fact, I think he’s had a great time. He stayed with his dad which would have been good for both of them and didn’t trash my house in my absence. I’m glad I didn’t give him the job of looking after the cats and I’m glad too that I let him have access to the house. He didn’t abuse my trust. It’s all worked out. He’s in the middle of exams and he says they’re going quite well. Actually, I’m really proud of him for taking responsibility for his own revision and deciding to stay at home (I shall try not to get paranoid about the fact that maybe he doesn’t want to come on holiday with his mother anymore).
He has however, in my absence organised a party at a local venue with some friends in which he expects to make money. I’m not sure if I should be impressed with his entrepreneurial skills or worried that he’s got in above his head. I found out about it last night when he said “mum, what’s an invoice?”.
I then established that he needs an enormous deposit both for the venue and for wrist bands and when I asked where that money was coming from he looked surprised that I would think it was coming from anywhere else but me.
Next he showed me the invitation. “We’re going to have 250 people there” he said. “Oh – and how many tickets have you sold so far?” I asked him. “Six”.
On the invitation it says “There will be adults present for supervision”. “Oh. That’s good” I said, “who have you got so far?”.
“Well. So far only you” he said.
This is not good.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Ah – I remember the days of under age parties fondly.
Trying to smuggle booze into the venue, bushes patrol with torches to prevent ellicit teenage fumbling. Such larks!
The best supervised parties were usually those supervised by elder brothers/sisters. They could judge from bitter experience when things were/weren’t in control and the younger children would feel happy going to them with problems (e.g. Lucy’s drunk so much she’s passed out in a ditch).
Happy days!
February 26th, 2009 at 9:26 am
I did laugh when I read this line….
then he said “mum, what’s an invoice?”.
oh boy…I dont want to scare monger, but when i put on discos in ym youth..and that was 230AD in case you ask…..we ahd to have an adult booking the hall and reassuring the police etc…soemthing about public liablity..I didnt ask my mum, but the local vicars dayghter, (whose hall it was) did the dirty work for us….ho hum, another worry..sorry….dont want to rain on anyones parade…today of all days!
February 26th, 2009 at 9:35 am
I for one, predict an “incident” with the boys in blue involved. Rather you than me.
February 26th, 2009 at 9:46 am
why not handstamp instead of wristbands? much cheaper. Its what my son’s band do at their gigs. and the net is the best way of advertising ! Your blog alone will bring in heaps of people!
as to the supervision….good luck
February 26th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
You need to drag out a pair of black highwaisted jeans, big buckle belt and skin tight black T – plaster a couple of fake tattoos on your forearms and I’m sure you’d make the most plausible bouncer for anywhere between 6-250 rampaging teenagers!!! Rather you than me…
February 26th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Ha ha! Could be a steep learning curve for him? Or, you could cancel it on the grounds that it wasn’t booked by someone over 18 (didn’t the venue check this?) How brave do you feel?!
PS Organising a party for teenagers was the one thing I wouldn’t allow my Young Enterprise Team at school to do to make money – FAR, FAR TOO RISKY!
February 27th, 2009 at 12:23 am
Oh Lord, I miss having teenagers. Not.
February 27th, 2009 at 3:17 am
What a wonderfully entrepreneurial spirit your son has. Mine, at age 7, wants to set up stands to sell stuff at the front of the house and call on neighbours to offer to do jobs for them, for money. I don’t want to dampen his spirits, but … well, sigh …
February 27th, 2009 at 4:59 am
Its not all bad you know. My boyfriend used to put on club nights once every 2mths at the local nightclub when he was 16-17, local DJs would play and apparently they were pretty popular. But… he didn’t do it for the money, and so long as they broke even and had enough money to do something a bit better the next time then they were happy. The only reason he stopped doing it was because he had to move away for Uni.