Читать книгу Yes, Please. Whatever!: How to get the best out of your teenagers - Penny Palmano - Страница 43

1 First and foremost, they must agree to clear up after the party by a certain time the following day. If they don’t agree willingly, negotiations are off.

2 Keep numbers low for the first party, about twelve to fifteen. If they say they want more, explain that if this party goes off without a hitch then the next time they can probably have more.

3 To avoid gate-crashers, ask them to invite their guests over the phone in the evening and to keep it to themselves, because if it gets around it will have to be cancelled.

4 Provide food to soak up any alcohol, like sandwiches, pizza, cheese and biscuits or bowls of Chinese/ Indian dishes and rice, or a big pasta dish and French bread.

5 Depending on their ages provide some limited alcohol and low alcohol beer, non-alcoholic wine and soft drinks and plenty of small individual bottles of water.Take precautions to avoid gate-crashers

6 If you want to put some candles out make sure they are in storm lanterns so that they cannot easily be knocked over.

7 Work out how loud the music can be without annoying the neighbours.

8 Warn the neighbours.

9 If the neighbours are good friends suggest you all go out for supper.

10 Get younger siblings to stay with friends.

11 Sadly, it is a fact of life that many teenagers smoke, so either ban it completely or allocate a smoking area, if necessary outside (but away from being seen from the road) and provide ashtrays or allow them to smoke in one room (for example, the kitchen) only.

12 Tell them that if they see any of their friends getting the worse for wear, they should make sure they drink plenty of water as vomit is really nasty to clear up. Explain where the bucket, rubber gloves, paper towelling and cloths are, just in case.

13 Arrange a time that you will be home and a time by which you expect them to be gone.

14 If any are staying over, buy in some bacon and rolls so that your teen can make everyone breakfast before they start to clear up.

15 If they’ve had a good party and cleared up as agreed, congratulate and thank them for making it such a success.

Sam: ‘However annoying cleaning up after a party is, it’s well worth it because I was allowed to have more parties. I felt that my Mum was generous enough to allow me to have the party and get things ready so I wanted to keep to my part of the deal. My friends respect/worship my Mum for all the effort she always puts in and they don’t mind helping to clean up in the morning.’