Well, it is prom time again. Some have already happened and some are about to . I can remember the excitement building to that one special night. It hasn’t been that long ago, HONESTLY. The planning started a couple months in advance with a list of to-do’s.
Find a date. (check)
Start dieting. (check, well sort-of)
Start tanning. (check, yes I did to big no-no and went to tanning salons.)
Find the perfect dress. (check)
Find the perfect shoes. (check)
Find the perfect accessories. (check)
Schedule prom pictures. (check)
Order own corsage and boutonniere. (check, you just can’t let the guy mess up the corsage.)
Make hair appointment. (check)
Go to hair appointment. (check)
Well, I probably missed some things, but you get the idea. It has been… 15 years since my junior prom…gasp. This is part of prom. The planning or prep work. This next part is not what prom is supposed to be about. Read on!
What prompted me to this topic was an article in my local paper talking about prom activities at some of the local high schools. One of those schools my daughter will be attending in several years. She’s only two now. In the article it stated that one of the high schools was having their prom at the local memorial building. Fine. The other high school, the one my daughter will be attending some day, was having their prom at a casino 40 miles from the town the high school is in. Not fine, in my opinion. I know I sound old-fashioned and when I was in high school it probably would have sounded great. **PROM AT A CASINO 40 MILES FROM HOME.** Now that I am older, hopefully a little wiser and a mother this does not sound like a good idea.
There was no mention of whether or not a bus would be shipping them or not or if they could chose not to ride the bus. That might alter my opinion a little bit, but only a little. The driving bothered me quite a bit with all the excitement of prom – kids laughing, possibly drinking and careless. Going to a casino bothered me too. I’m sure parts of the casino were off limits, but to me opening the doors to a casino for prom is sending a bad message to teens. Everyone knows what happens in casinos. Gambling, drinking, smoking, etc. Not everybody who goes to a casino is reckless, but you hear enough about casinos that this does happen to some people. I just hope that in the years until my daughter reaches this age this school will have come up with a better place closer to home to hold prom. In the past it was held at the high school. What’s wrong with that?
My prom days, which I thought were fine at the time when I was 17 and 18 years old, were not any better. For my high school prom was held at the Days Inn Hotel. Looking back – A HOTEL! I never thought twice about it beforehand, but I do remember seeing kids go to rooms that had been rented to party in and do who knows what in. I remembered thinking would parents really rent hotel rooms for their kids or did the hotel allow high school kids to rent these rooms? Honestly, I was not one of them. We went to after prom at the local YMCA. My senior prom was the last one at that hotel. I heard it was due to fire hazards because of too many people in the banquet room and the front of the hotel was blocked because of a pa rade line of prom guests for parents to view and take pictures of. I always wondered if there were other reasons for them to change locations from the hotel to the actual high school.
These are bad messages to be sending teens – proms at casinos 40 miles from home and at hotels. Why can’t a prom just be at the high school or a local building in town? Why does it need to be at a casino or hotel? What is the purpose of that? Prom is supposed to be about dancing, laughing and having fun with friends, not gambling, drinking or renting hotel rooms. Prom is a fun and happy time just before the end of schooldays and childhood when kids that have spent years together part ways to embark on a quest for their future. It does not need to involve casinos or hotels. Just leave it as a dance where teens can have fun planning for it beforehand and then enjoy the night of it with no pressures.
