My daughter, who is 19, is home for the summer after spending her first year of college away from home. I can't say it's an easy transition but it helps if you establish rules that you both agree upon.
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Do Away with a Curfew: Now that she's used to not having a curfew at school, my gringo persuaded me to do away with it now that she's back home. However, she knows that if she decides to stay out all night she needs to let me know or she'll have to abide by one once again!
Keep the Communication Open: Email and text make it much easier for them to let you know their whereabouts at all times. My daughter needs to tell me where she is; if plans change and if she is running late and when she is getting home no matter what time!
Increased Responsibilities: Just because she did extremely well during her first year of college and she's on summer break it doesn't mean that she can stay home doing nothing. My daughter got a paid internship for which she applied late February and I expect she will continue to help with chores at home.
Show Respeto: My gringo is even stricter than me when it comes to this! Just because she's an adult and she's learned to be independent it doesn't mean that she can do what she wants and "faltar el respeto.". She can't raise her voice, give us attitude or forget that as parents we still rule at home!
Keeping Tabs on what they're doing through social media: This is my last resort since tweets and status updates can be misinterpreted creating even more stress! Last weekend when she was still out at 3am so I checked her twitter I had a mild heart attack when I read "Life is too short. I don't want to court." I thought of an entire episode of a novela with my daughter as the protagonist only to find out the next day that she was tweeting the words to a song!
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