The battle lines are drawn

Tonight will be a referendum on our parenting skills so far. Our oldest, soon-to-be-18-year-old son, is attending a local high school prom with his girlfriend of six months. While I was excited and happy for him to have the opportunity to experience this typical American high-school ritual, there were a few things that bothered us. I wasn’t very happy with the idea of him driving lots of kids around in our big van. I was not happy with the idea of an “after prom.” I am really not happy with his spending the night with a group of friends over at his girlfriend’s house and I hate it that he prioritized pictures and dinner tonight over the opportunity to go to mass. The school, in it’s great secularized wisdom, has seen fit to sponsor a trip to an amusement park two hours away on Sunday, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. with no opportunity for any kids to attend mass or services.

Luckily, Mr. Pete pulled the idea of letting Calvin borrow the van. He is simply driving his own car (or rather the car that we allow him to drive).

However, he did miss mass this evening and told me that he has no intention of trying to fit mass in this weekend. I reminded him we call that “mortal sin.”

Lastly, we did tell him that we absolutely forbid him to spend the night over at his girlfriend’s house. Her father called to talk to us last night, but as he has never assisted us in getting Calvin home before curfew after visiting his daughter late at his house, even when we requested that he send Calvin home at 11:30 p.m., so I don’t really trust his chaperoning skills.

The consequence for defying us by staying overnight and then attending the amusement park the next day will be to have the car disabled and sold.

Last I saw Calvin, he was wearing his tuxedo and packing for the weekend.

So it’s going to be a war of wills.

I predict that he will defy us and spend the night at his girlfriend’s house.

I predict that we will sell his car next week, or at least put it up for sale.

I predict that this is going to get pretty ugly.

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