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son's 18th birthday, how can i make it cool?

I

Icey101

Jun 22, 2011
492
10
Australia Victoria
#1
ok all you masterminds of life...

my son's 18th birthday is coming up soon and i'm planning on holding a party for him and his friends at our house, its going to be a young people's party...meaning 18 and younger school friends, so i'm not having any boozing, things are strict over here with under age boozing....

ok so i plan on hiring out some lighting, dance type stuff, and an amp and speaker they can plug there ipods into...also catering can be done by myself and the misses

i'm not sure, what else do you guys think i should do to make it cool?

open to suggestions

Edit: most of his mates are 17, drinking age is 18, if i have beer, the younger ones are bound to be drinking, which is a 5 grand fine for supplying booze to minors
 
#2
I don't know in terms of events or entertainment or anything of that sort. But I think it would be cool to have someone put together a playlist with the option of people putting their own music on later. They're gonna want to dance, have a good time, enjoy the music without having to change it all the time, or the annoying group of people who will be song-skipping and iPod changing all the time. Those people are bound to be there.

The other thing I would say is give them a bit of space. I'm not a parenting expert, I'm only speaking from the perspective of a 21 year old who had a lot of fun at that age when the parents didn't have their nose in all the time. Requires trust, but it's worth it.

What's the drinking age in Oz? It's 18 here.
 
#4
i_got_a_mohawk said:
So he's turning 18, and from what I can see, that's the drinking age in Victoria. But you aren't going to let him have any drink at the party?
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I found this strange as well. Not to question your parenting, it's just a birthday that means you finally have the freedom to have a drink, and to learn responsible drinking. Obviously it shouldn't be out of hand, like hard spirits or anything, but I'm sure he'd appreciate you allowing a few beers. If it doesn't happen at your house, it will happen somewhere else.

Once again, not disrespecting your authority as his father.
 
#6
18 is drinking age? You need to get off the stage mister, your slot at this gig is over.

Cut the man loose for his bday. He's all grown up now by your country's standard. If he's still living at home, you can call the rules only about what goes on in your home and how anything he does affects that status.
 
#7
Well, if there's no drinking, I'm assuming hookers and blow are out of the question. That's a joke.

I think the no drinking thing is a great idea, and there are plenty of ways to have a fun time without it. I have no idea what's cool these days, because I know for a fact I am not. My biggest suggestion is to get some input from him. If you don't want him to know about it, does he have a trusted friend you can talk to? The only people who know what 17-18 year olds think is cool are 17-18 year olds.

They might as well be from another planet, as far as I'm concerned.
 
#8
I'm really surprised you haven't got the standard answer. Hookers and blow. Try renting a party bus and have a couple other dads along to supervise. Let them go wherever they want. Have them stay at your house afterwords.


I WAS TOO LATE!
 
#12
I agree with a lot that has already been said.

Pretty much every birthday party I was going to by that age had very minimal to even no adult supervision. We'd really only see the parents when it was time to cut the cake, but that's neither here nor there.

As for your son's birthday party, do you plan on having it on his actual birthday or maybe a day or two after?

- If it's a day or two after, I'd say take him out to a nice, semi-early dinner, and then hire a limo to take him and his 18 year old buds out to a few bars. Give the limo driver a timeline to be home by, and then have his friends spend the night. I think that would be a pretty sweet birthday.

- If it's the day of, or if too many of his friends are 17, then I'd suggest having everyone over for pizza, cake, and beer. I'd ask your son's friends' parents if they'd mind if they had some beer for your son's 18th. Tell them you'll buy a very specific amount of beer so the kids wouldn't have more than 2-3 beers, and then they could spend the night at your place. Maybe setup a beer pong/flip cup table, too ;)

Maybe it's just in the US, but turning 21 (or 18 in your case) is a pretty big birthday year and most people want to celebrate it by taking advantage of their newly found freedom.
 
#17
TBH i'd suggest doing a 2-stager - an all ages thing (daytime?) and then maybe let him and his friends who you KNOW to be 18 to have a bit of an unsupervised yay-you-can-drink evening. Probably on different days though.

Either way, he'll be drinkin'.
 
#19
seang15 said:
Call me naive, it's likely fitting. But I didn't think it was legal ANYWHERE to drink at 18!! :hiding:

With that said, he is still young. BE A PARENT. And for crissakes, don't serve minors.
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drinkingmap.png


In the developed world it's mainly the USA that has a problem with people drinking at 18 :p
 

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