Single parenting

My son asked to go to a friend's pool party on Saturday night. If Ken had been here I would have asked him what he thought (we don't know the parents and don't know the child.) He would have said it was okay for Mark to go and I would have agreed and Mark would have gone to the party. If something dire had happened I would have blamed Ken for letting Mark go and Ken would have blamed me for not voicing my concern and we would have been even and in the end actually would have no one to blame and everyone to blame. (Parenting is complicated.)

But now on my own, I had to make the decision myself and blame only myself if things went wrong. I questioned Mark as to who was going to be at the party, would the parents be there, what time would he be coming home? Mark, being fifteen, was clueless and knew no details. I casually mentioned that I was going to call the parents and get the questions answered. Mark merely shrugged. That was answer enough for me; he was more than willing to let me call.

He went to the party and came home safely. (Single parenting is complicated.)