How to Throw a Safe 16th Birthday Party

Thinking of throwing a 16th birthday party for your teenager? Great idea!

Turning 16 can be very exciting for a young adult as he/she begins the transition into adulthood. This milestone in life certainly warrants a celebration; however you must be careful not to invite trouble to your doorstep.

Much like those notorious “after-prom parties,” sixteenth birthday parties seem to have a knack for getting out of hand. From alcohol to gate-crashers, there are many things that can turn the party into a nightmare—and you will be held responsible.

Never fear! With the proper precautions you can still throw a fabulous party while avoiding situations that could ruin a good time.

It’s Not Cool to be “Cool”

Here’s a fun tip for all you wannabe “cool parents” out there: Do not, under ANY circumstance, serve the kids alcohol! You may think it’s permissible to serve alcohol to minors if you’re having the party at your own house. However, you need to decide between fulfilling your need to be the “cool” parent, or becoming the recipient of a great deal of grief from angry parents and legal authorities.

Think about it—Is it worth the lynch mob of rabid parents that will show up at your door, ready to hang you for endangering their precious little bumpkins? Signs point to “no,” so make sure to keep the liquor cabinet locked, and if anyone is caught drinking, call their parents and have them taken home at once! On a serious note, allowing teenagers to drink in your home can have grave consequences. You could face hefty fines, prison or both, and even worse if some kid gets injured or dies.

Keep it Down Over There!

Another thing that could result in police showing up on your doorstep is if the party is too loud. This becomes more likely to happen if you live in a residential neighborhood with lots of neighbors really close by.

There are several ways that this could play out. One is that you’ll just get a warning, the cops will go on their merry way, you’ll turn the music down and the party will go on without a hitch. Or, let’s say you’ve decided to let the kids go wild and things are raging out of control—the police will probably not take kindly to such a scene and may decide to enter your home—then you might really be in trouble!

Remember, if want to avoid a run-in with the po-po, you better keep it on the low-low!

Crowd Control

When one kid at school has a big party, chances are that the entire school will somehow get wind of it and decide to invite themselves along, resulting in a torrent of teenagers breaking down your door to crash the party! Yikes!

That being said, be mindful of how the party invitations are sent out. A girl in England sent invitations to her sweet 16 party over Facebook, an action that resulted in an army of 400 party-crashers descending on her parent’s mansion, trashing the place and doing thousands of dollars worth of damage. It turned out that the “Facebook Republican Army” scours Facebook looking for parties to crash—you don’t want a group like this showing up to your event!

How can you avert disaster? By making the party invite-only and mailing invitations to the homes of everyone invited. Don’t let your kid hand invitations out at school or send them over social networks like Facebook because everyone will find out and you may end up having to deal with uninvited guests. If you’re throwing a big party, you might want to consider hiring a couple of bouncers to keep the troublemakers out of the party. Packs of wild teenage gate-crashers tend to arrive in large numbers and there’s not much you can do to fend off the masses if you’re the only adult there.

So, what should you do?

Make sure you have the party in a safe environment, whether it’s in your own home or at a rented venue. If you’re throwing a party with a large number of guests, you might want to consider renting a venue for the night. If you plan ahead, you’ll throw a great party and be ready to handle any situation that comes your way!