Teen Overnight

A few weeks back, I took Arya to the family overnight, which was focused on younger kids and so absolutely needed an abundance of grown-ups there. Tonight is the 8th grader overnight, which permits drop-off-and-drive but also still requires some supervision. Beth took one look at the available volunteer shifts and promptly declared that the 4-7 a.m. shift was pretty much made for me. And though I winced a bit (especially 20-something me who used to go to bed at 4 a.m.), she wasn't wrong.

Fortunately, they were able to find me a quiet room far from the action to sleep before my shift. While sleeping on a mat on the floor is somewhat lacking in the comforts of my own bed, it sure beats getting up even earlier to be here by 4 (I live 15-20 minutes away in light traffic). I suspect that the early shift is going to be mostly sitting on my computer and chatting with the other chaperones on duty. I'm not taking any chances, however, which is why I'm writing this before dinner rather than banking on a quiet and uneventful early morning.

I worked 3rd shift for a couple years and 2nd shift for several years after that, and my experience has been that late shifts are usually quiet, but when something goes wrong, it's a full-blown crisis that you're forced to address more or less on your own.

At the risk of talking about church way more than I usually do, this event is nominally a part of a weekly, 9-month-long, well, calling it a sex ed class really falls short. Puberty, safe sex, and pregnancy are a part of it, but there are also sessions about mental health & self-care, body image, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, and bullying. Fittingly, they have a couple of discussions planned tonight about healthy relationships and relationship challenges (and not just the romantic sort of relationship, either).

This really flies in the face of my entire experience of being a teen. It felt like we mostly learned about bullying by being bullied, about unhealthy relationships by blundering into them, and about sexual orientation the first time a friend came out (or by being that queer teen). The idea of teaching kids about this stuff before it becomes a major feature of their day-to-day lives seems both radical and far superior to the alternatives. Knowing how to have safe sex is important and all, but knowing how to pick safe people to be around (be they friends or romantic partners) is ultimately even more important, you know?

Alright. Enough about that. Time for tacos and then bed.