Teen Party Trips

A month ago, just as the Natalee Holloway story was beginning, I wrote a column in which I asked why parents would allow their 18-year-old kid to go on a party vacation to the Caribbean in the first place.  I got more than a few e-mails from people who said, "You're crazy!  When I graduated high school 20 years ago, I went on a trip just like that, and it was fine.  You don't know what you're talking about!"

Now, several weeks later, similar pieces are beginning to appear in print and elsewhere, like this one in the St. Petersburg Times.  It's about two teen girls who go to the Bahamas to party it up, and what really happens while they're there -- it may come as a shock to those who think times haven't changed.

The disturbing part of this story is how the mother of one of the girls warns, "Don't get too drunk there" -- thereby acknowledging that her underage-in-the-US daughter is going to booze it up in the Bahamas, where the drinking age is 18 and not well enforced.

The parents seem to think it's all innocent fun, but I wonder how they felt after reading what their kid was in the midst of and how she acted.  Pay attention, mom and dad!