>> TEEN SCHEMES DECEIVE PARENTS

Teenagers go through an impressive period of cognitive growth, culminating in new intellectual skills such as logical and abstract thought and hypothetical reasoning. Along with these newfound brain skills, many teens demonstrate incredible creativeness in deceiving their parents — what I call “teen schemes.”

One favorite example of this involves beating curfews. A parent is too tired to stay up for her son’s midnight curfew, so she sets her alarm for midnight. She instructs her son to tiptoe into her bedroom when he gets home and to turn off her alarm. If she awakens to the alarm clock at midnight, she knows her son has missed his curfew. For teens, the scheme is to get home before curfew, turn off the alarm, then head right out the front door again. Another variation is for a teen to call home just before her curfew. When her dad answers the phone, she says, “I have it, Dad. I just got home.” Thinking that his daughter is on the phone downstairs, the dad turns off the alarm and goes back to sleep. One parent caught her teenagers paying off a younger sibling to turn off her alarm clock after she went to sleep. Our first contributor below shares a teen scheme that has potentially dangerous outcomes.
A future column will be about school schemes. Share your favorites with me.

SLEEPOVERS MAY NOT BE WHERE YOU THINK THEY ARE It is quite common for kids to tell their parents that they are sleeping over at a particular friend’s house, when in reality they will be at a different location — probably a home that you wouldn’t approve of. This situation could lead to serious problems and consequences: sexual involvement, alcohol or other substance abuse, or getting in trouble with the law. ALWAYS call and talk to the host parent, and make sure that an adult will be supervising the sleepover. You might be surprised at what you find out. -- R.T., Pleasanton, Calif.