There was a topic recently on the evesun.com forum questioning whether or not there should be mandated curfews for kids.

I think so.

When I was a budding youngster, kids had to take an active role in their development. That often meant getting in trouble. Because in the mid-1990s video games hadn’t replaced real adventures and computers were still for nerds. Nope, we were outdoor kiddies who learned from the school of hard knocks (and run when the porch lights come on). And curfews – especially when you break them in the formative years – were good learning tools for those who wished to one day be street smart.

If there weren’t any when I was a teenager, my friends and I would have rammed around town day and night without a care in the world, probably causing all sorts of senseless trouble. What would that have taught us? Nothing. Instead – fearing the consequences from police and parents, but born with hot sauce in our shorts – we had to raise hell consciously. That, people, teaches discipline (which is what keeps most of us from acting like the selfish, rotten and evil creatures that we really are).

Curfews disciplined us to be resourceful. Planning well in advance and making due with whatever supplies were available were keys to survival. For example, replenishing a dried-up stock of Little Debbies alone was not worth breaking curfew. However, if something else came along that was – like the prospect of crashing a slumber party across town – we’d pick-up the Ho-Ho’s while we were out (this brings us back to being well prepared; the least publicly-used route to a destination was always mapped out before venturing off after curfew. That often meant the difference between playing truth or dare and getting grounded).