How to corrupt your kids: Volume 1 of, well, many I am sure!

These lessons provided to you by MusicMan, the adult (23) son.

Background: In July while I was in Austin he threw a massive party at my house. Control was not maintained, police were called for a noise violation (as I had encouraged my neighbors to do), and a general mess was made of my yard and house. The last part is what really bothered me of course! There were scuff marks on my walls and clearly someone had staggered up stairs with a dribbling drink in hand. Stains on the carpet gave that little incident away. Now, on the plus side, no one was under age and having a party at the house meant that HE was driving anywhere. Plus, he does love to BBQ and cook in general for his friends. So after I ripped him a new one, we came to an agreement that should prevent him from being compelled to sneak behind my back with these events. Once a month he can have his friends over – while I am there. He just needs to give me a fwe days notice and they have to clear out by 10pm. He had a gathering in August that as a bit tepid. I think we were both checking things out to see if it would work 😉 I also don’t think his friends believed that I was OK with it! Yesterday was round #2. A Labor Day BBQ.

At the same time, SportsBoy had a friend over too. My plan was to hide out up in my room with my laptop while the young boys took over the living room and the Wii and the young adults partied in the back yard. It started off well enough. I made sure my potted plants were off the patio table so they could use it, and I left trash bags and cans out, and scurried upstairs after saying hi to the party goers (about 10 in all). The party started about 4pm. I would go down about every 20 minutes to check on things. Though of course I covered that up by making it look as if I just needed water, ice, etc etc from downstairs 🙂 The stealth chaperon you see. And on my first trip down, this is what I hear:

MM: “Yeah, we are going to play Beer Pong so we need the red cups”

SB: “What’s beer pong?”

MM: “Oh, you can come watch when we get started”

Me: (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Remember he had a friend over. That’s really what I wanted his buddy to tell HIS parents. “Yeah, I had a blast. I learned how to play Beer Pong!” Way to start off middle school eh? Get the reputation of being the house where you can learn some cool party games. Ack! NO!

Thankfully MM came to his senses and artfully diverted their attention and also made sure the windows and blinds were closed to the back yard. Phew.

Anyhow, I know they had a good time out there because I heard lots of screaming and laughter. They cleared out around 8:30 which was perfect. I cleaned up a little bit behind them and put away left over food.  MM made me a cheeseburger and offered to feed the boys, but they declined (wanted pizza instead). Potential corruption averted. Phew. I think I will ask him to time these BBQs for when SB is at his dad’s!