Things My Parents Should Have Worried About

Since I will be a parent myself in rather short order (remind me again this was on purpose, please!), I've been thinking a lot about things my parents let me do that no sane parent should EVER let their child do (or should at least think about for a good long time before they acquiesce). To my credit, I survived. To my parents' credit, they must have been either completely insane or completely trusting. I suspect it was more of the former. They have, over the years, provided a great deal of "what were they thinking" conversations amongst my friends ... perhaps, 16 years down the road, I'll make the same decisions, but I have the hardest time believing that at the moment.

Things My Parents Should Have Worried About ... And Apparently Didn't:

• Overnight in Vegas. When I was 15, my parents let me, a handful of my teenage friends, and my best friend's 21-year-old brother and his 20-year-old girlfriend (we needed someone to drive!) go to Las Vegas the last night of school my sophomore year. Just for the night. In a horrible rainstorm. We didn't actually stay anywhere, we just wandered the Strip all night, had breakfast (back in the days of $2 breakfasts on the Strip) and came home. There is nothing to do if you are under 21 in Vegas in the middle of the night other than get into trouble, which, somehow, we managed not to do. How my parents managed to be psychic enough to realize that, I'm not sure.
• 11 p.m. Wilderness Excursions. Go night hiking with complete strangers. I was managing the night shift at an Imax theater a couple of nights a week. A trio of LDS "almost missionaries" from Canada came through for one of the shows. They were going night hiking - flirted, asked for a good night hiking recommendation, and then asked if I wanted to go. With all of my 17 years of wisdom, I said yes. I did have the good sense to bring along a male co-worker (who maybe weighed 110 lbs soaking wet, but that's beside the point). My parents didn't bat an eye when I told them why I would be late. I'm still baffled. We went night hiking. With strangers. In a National Park in the middle of nowhere. Legal, but sane? Hardly. I had the time of my life, of course.
• Jeff Who? A good friend was spending the night. We went to the store to rent a video (when, pray tell is the last time you did that?). We ran into one of the baggers, a guy friend from Chemistry. He invited us over. We said yes. I ran into the house, told my dad we were "Going to Jeff's house," He said "okay" and we left. Never asked Jeff who. Never asked where. Never asked for a phone number, when I'd be home or what I was doing. (Caveat: My mother wasn't home - when she got home, my father got a lecture about saying yes without all the info).
• 36 Teens. 2 Adults. 1 Trip to CA. As part of my duties in student gov't in high school my junior year, I was invited to participate in a nationwide teen service drive, Teens Across America. Our portion involved massive service projects in four cities and a caravan across the dessert to our ultimate destination - a 3-day stay in L.A. Sounds perfectly respectable right? It was ... If you forget about the fact my parents went on vacation (in the wilderness, pre-cell phone days) during the time the teens were in my hometown, we used my empty house as home base and there were 36 teens from all over the U.S. and (gasp) only 2 adult chaperones. I don't even know how I managed to pull that one off unscathed.
• 17. Blind Date. 1:30 a.m. Curfew. I don't even have to explain that one. Never mind the blind date became my on-again, off-again romantic interest most of the way through college. Never mind my mother ended up adoring him. Never mind I was with two girlfriends who were as close as sisters. The three guys were totally anonymous to my parents. I still wonder what they were (or weren't) thinking!

I could go on. There are more, but I'm already alarming myself (it didn't stop, even in college, though I stopped asking for permission. I moved 2,500 miles away with no job and no place to live and no one uttered a single, "have you really thought about this?!"). My adult friends think I must have been ridiculously brainwashed to manage to get my parents to agree to these things. I'm not sure what I was, but they are now as big a source of bafflement for my parents as they are for me.

Please tell me that I didn't inherit this insanity gene - or that I will be blessed with whatever failsafe wisdom my parents had when making these decisions - the wisdom to know their kid would come home in one piece and turn out okay.