Well, the logical thing is to ask her if she minds company and you both do homework together. My hubby is a middle school teacher and its not unheard of for my girls to ask hubby if they can help grade -- maybe ask her if there's anything you can help her with, like maybe verifying a few easy-to-verify sources for her students papers? You are already acknowledging that you hide out in your room... I swear the weather isn't so different in the basement! You might just find that the company is nice and you might learn moms aren't such bad creatures.

All you teens who swear your parents are so strict... if you just trusted your parents a little and opened up to us, you'd be amazed at how much more fun you'd have with your parents. Let us in on what is going on in your life. My youngest got caught sneaking out of the hosue last (I am a heavy sleeper but hear every creak on the steps ) We called her on her cell phone and said "uh, where are you???" She went to see her friend who's grandmom is dying in the hospital. He's really not taking it well and he needed someone to talk to. She asked if she had to come home, and we said no once we found out where she was. Why? Because she always keeps us up to date on whats going on in her life and her friends lives. We know this boy and think of him like family... and we trust him because he talks to us. They both respect us, and we in turn respect that they will come to us with anything we would need to know.

We parents not out to attack you and punish you for everything..... but if my daughter never told us he's going through this problem.... if we didn't know this boy well, the story might be different. But since she is always honest with us (or at least for the most part honest ) we simply told her that next time she wants to help a friend that she needs to tell us instead of just sneaking out. No screaming matches ensued (like it did with her older sister) because we KNOW whats going on with her.... unlike her sister who kept everything inside and thought we were the enemy.

With her older sister, we told her that SHE was the one who decided how good or bad her senior year of highschool would be. She could have fun and enjoy her senior year of she could be miserable -- all based on how much she opened up to us and let us know whats going on with her. Of course they have secrets. Parents realize a certain amount of privacy and secrets go on in the world of teenagers, but we don't worry about the secrets they keep when we know about a good percetnage of their lives. The more we trust you, the more freedom and priveldeges you'll get. The more we feel you are pushing us away and hiding something the more we'll pull you in and tighten the rules.

Glad I could help so far!