"COM"

Ok..... Here I go on a MAJOR rant. I am soooo mad right now, this is probably not the best time to be venting, but I'm going to so - DEAL. For anyone that doesn't know, my oldest child is a 14 year old boy. Raising a teenager presents a hand full of obstacles, but I like to think my husband and I are doing a decent job. Let me back up the bus for a second by stating that I have always been dubbed the "CRAZY OVERPROTECTIVE MOM" and I'm totally ok with that title, if being that means that I am the only parent that checks and double checks on things, needs to know where my kid is at all times and with who, and refuses to allow my child to be in inappropriate situations for teenagers. Soooo, let's talk about what has me SOOOO flippin upset about tonight. I FINALLY decide to cave and let my son go to a girl's house to "hang out" with his friends (boys and girls). While I'm "COM"(crazyoverprotectivemom) I do realize that, at his age, I do need to let go a little and trust in all that we've taught him he will make the right decisions. While I know this to be true, I also know many other things to be true too.... Like - teenagers will be teenagers, teenagers DON'T always make the best decisions, and left unsupervised lord know what can and will happen. I digress... Anywho... I decide to cave and let him go, though he was going to have to be dropped off late because we had a family gathering to attend. So I get to the girl's house to drop my son off and as I pull in the driveway I say to him "I am coming to the door to talk to her parents." So up to the door I go, expecting to have a nice conversation thanking the parents for allowing the kids to come over and hang out. When my son knocks on the door I say, "Can I talk to your parents?" I get a bunch of girls looking at me like I am a one eyed monster and I hear "They aren't here right now." Ummmmmmm excuse me?!?! Then they try to back pedal and say "They'll be back in, like 10 minutes." So I politely ask my son to return to the car and he does, but is understandably mortified by me, his "COM." I try to explain how it is completely unacceptable and inappropriate for 14 year old boys and girls to be left alone at home together and I think, deep down, he totally gets that just as much as I get that it is embarrassing for him to be told in front of his friends that he can't stay. So the story I hear is that the dad of this girl had to leave for just a minute (or 10 minutes as the girls told me) to pick up the mom who was at a friends house that is "not far at all." And my only questions are: A) There is a 2nd car sitting parked in front of the house.... Why wouldn't that car have been driven to the "not far at all" friend's house, if you knew you were having a house full of 14year olds hang out for the night and B) if this "not far at all" destination is so "not far at all" then why wouldn't you walk home so the parent that is at home can continue to stay home and supervise the hormonal teenagers??!?!? I guess I'll never understand this lax form of parenting in this day and age. I'll never understand why some people think it's more important to be a "cool" parent, or a friend instead of a parent. But one thing that I do know for sure is that it is inappropriate and unacceptable for kids this age to be left alone unsupervised in someone's home on a Friday night. Call me "COM" all you want, I'd rather be called that, than GRANDMA!