Chloe Weir 

Kim Wozencraft 

English

Oct 21st, 2022

     Curfew is something that parents all around the world use. It is always looked at as a way for parents to control what time your home at the end of the day. But, forcing your children to be home can cause change in their behavior or personality. This is why curfew will push kids to rebel and disobey their parents. 

    Kids at a young age are prone to wanting to be outside when the sun goes down, so towns started putting curfews out for kids to be in the house and off the streets at a certain time. As kids get older they make more friends, have more freedom and don’t really pay attention to curfew. Many parents don’t know that forcing their child inside all the time can have negative effects. Curfew can make teens think their parents don’t trust them enough to get home at a reasonable time all alone and it can also delay a person from learning how to be independent and responsible. This includes “early curfews and limited social freedoms, and thus they struggle to reconcile their parents’” (Somerville).  Parents fail to realize that sometimes kids need to be outside and with friends they can’t be limited to just talking to family, they need time to find themselves and evolve. Sometimes this includes parents  trusting their teen enough to get home, making good friends that will look out for them, and also being able to talk to them if they have concerns. 

   According to “Do Curfews for Teens Actually Reduce Violent Crime?” This lead to more teens wanting to be out at night. Nowadays it’s not just parents issuing their teens curfew but also the city. In Philadelphia they set a curfew for 16 and 17 year olds who would usually be out all night. If they were to see you out past 10 pm they would arrest you and bring you back home, sometimes even fine the house of the teen. This can lead to teens being sneaky and problems at home. It gives the parents trust issues and it makes it harder for the teen-parent relationship because it causes teens to sneak out and not tell their parents anything. Setting curfew for the town can be a smart idea if all parents enforced it as much as the city did. If parents act like they don’t care about the curfew it shifts the teens perspective on it aswell which makes them think they don’t have to follow the curfew and that’s where problems happen.

    Another reason I think curfew can be a problem is because of self-isolation. Parents want their kids to be home doing homework, chores, and playing with siblings but sometimes that can do more harm to them then good. Teens get so wrapped up in wanting to do what others do that if some of their friends were outside at night and they couldn’t go there, it’s not cool enough to hang out. Sometimes it drives kids away from friends and then they end up wanting to be inside all the time in their rooms not wanting to do anything. It’s good to let your kids go out but you have to trust them so they trust you. Sometimes kids don’t feel comfortable telling their parents things because they don’t know how they are going to react. During the pandemic we all had curfews and a lot of people self-isolated because of how lonely it was having to be inside and off the streets at a certain time. Even adults would have to go to work then by the time they clock out its already curfew and all they can do is go home for the rest of the night. Sometimes curfew gets lonely so i dont always think it’s the answer but sometimes it can be helpful. 

   In conclusion parents arent the only ones who set curfews and teens sometimes aren’t the only ones who have to follow a curfew. Sometimes structure is good and sometimes a little structure can go a long way. Curfew can be used in different ways, for an entire town or even just one little boy.