How to Establish a Curfew With Your Child

Video Transcript

"Hello! Have you even wondered how to set a curfew for your child? Well, I'd like to share some important tips with you on that. My name is Dr. Felicia. Curfews are something that's a taboo subject amongst most teens. What you want to do is very important, you may not realize but most communities have their own ordinance about what time a child should be in off the street. It's important that you follow that ordinance, number one be aware of it. Number two is you want to look at your own teens level of maturity. Many teens can be fifteen and act like nineteen whereas others can be fifteen and have the judgment of a ten year old. So, it's up to you to judge the mental maturity of the child. Certainly depends on the environment they live in what activity they want to go to. But, as a parent you would have to monitor that and you would certainly want to make your decision based on all these variables. So, in other words, there's not a concrete time that's good for every child at every age, it depends on their maturity, activities, and associates that they're going to go with. If you're concerned about their friends, by all means, you may have to pull in the reigns and cut the curfew time a lot earlier. A lot of times if a punishment is used, curfew is used to finish a punishment. If someone did something wrong you may want them in by seven verses 10pm. Certainly your curfew would be different on school nights versus weekends. They expect these rules because it keeps things more in line for them. If they disobey your curfew then you need to have a set set of rules as to what the punishment's going to be. The other thing you do want to keep in mind is if your child is out and happens to get into a mishap that they're free to call you at any time. They should feel safe, free of punishment, to call you so that you might be able to pick them up and take them out of danger. OK? So, please instill that in your child, safety first, and happy curfew making. Good luck and Dr. Felicia signing off."