Spring Break

[Kimmifunn]

Ok...This was brought up over in the other thread...but I'm kinda shocked by how many of you aren't letting your college kids go on spring break to the beach. Is it because they are farther away than we were- at Auburn?

I'm not trying to be insulting by any means, and respect reasons like cost, ect, but we never had problems with friends not being able to go. Please enlighten me.

So question is. Spring break...Yes or No and if No then when will they be old enough?

 

[Jdarg]

Will is only 13, so he has a few years,but here are my thoughts...

I think the partying game has significantly changed alot in the past 10-15 years. There is an "ick" factor that wasn't around as much when we were spring breaking in the early 1980's. All it took for me to see was to watch a few of the spring break MTV shows- where did these gross people come from? I would hope to God my kids didn't go around looking or acting like K-Fed or Britney, and that seems to be the level that many of the kids aspire to reach. Why everyone has to top each other in bad behavior, I have no idea. But it seems to be a popular contest these days. Of course now it is popular to go to Mexico or the Caribbean, where anything goes. And we have seen how that one ends.

What happened to drinking beer on the beach? Maybe going to a bar, and wearing clothes, not a thong hanging out? Or a guy waering a t-shirt that doesn't say something about a Big Johnson? Nice. Spring Break has become more like Freak-nik or KY Derby cruising ( a Freaknik wannabe that is out of hand).

I already told Will that I would rent a house in Grayton big enough for all of his friends. But Bdarg and I will be there. And maybe some of the friend's parents, if they are fun. I want my kid alive at the end of the week. I know a couple parents that do this, and everyone has a great time, because they are all parents that the kids want to be around. I hope we are like that too.

I was a wild child and maybe that is why I am over-protective now. But when you start to think of the things you did when you were younger, then consider that it is possible that your kid will do all that and worse stuff now, you have to plan ahead.

The alternative Spring Break on another thread sounds wonderful. I hope my kids are interested.

Crap. I am old.

 

[Mermaid]

Ok...This was brought up over in the other thread...but I'm kinda shocked by how many of you aren't letting your college kids go on spring break to the beach.

So question is. Spring break...Yes or No and if No then when will they be old enough?

We went a couple of years due to the fact that we were too lazy to figure anything else out. We stayed at the Chateau Motel on the strip. It was insane. Pure debautchery. The first run we had down there we got busted within 2 hours of being there. Our friends next door got all their booze poured out that we stopped in Troy to have her youth minister buy for us. The experience was so trasy and so gross and so not us...but so much fun.

What you did on Spring Break at the Chateau Motel, kimmifunn, is what my darling son is quite capable of doing in Seagrove Beach at our condo!

Plus, if you saw what his room at home looks like, AND his room at college, you'd say NO, too. It's enough to give anyone heart attacks.

 

[audie]

i was reading in one of the 10,000 magazines i get monthly about how kids today are drinking so much they are being hospitalized or worse for alcohol poisoning. i guess it is a lot more common than people realize, and if i was a parent that would scare me to death. i know i am naive about stuff like that but i always figured alcohol poisoning happened to winos, i had no clue how prevalent it is in teens !

 

[iwishiwasthere]

My oldest broke me in well. Her first year she wanted to go to Key West, so I said pay for it and you can.(She wasn't working at the time.) Well she found 5 friends, they shared a hotel room and had a blast. What I learned from her is this, she will not act any differently on Spring Break than she normally does. If they want to get drunk and screw, that is what they will do.....wherever they are. She went on trips the next three years and had good times. My youngest just wants to rest for a while and we are going to SoWal for a couple days. The values taught at home will go with them for life. Just remind them of the dangers and they will make good choices. Most of the things on tv are the extreme behaviors anyway, not the norm.

 

[dbuck]

Well, my son is an 18 yo senior in high school. What I can't fathom is so many parents letting their high school seniors go on spring break alone. I guess next year when he is in college, it will be a different story, but until then, NO, NO, NO. As I said on the other thread, we would be more than happy to take him and other boys. Hey, I would be willing to waive curfew for the week. I think that is generous (enough).

 

[Smiling JOe]

i was reading in one of the 10,000 magazines i get monthly about how kids today are drinking so much they are being hospitalized or worse for alcohol poisoning. i guess it is a lot more common than people realize, and if i was a parent that would scare me to death. i know i am naive about stuff like that but i always figured alcohol poisoning happened to winos, i had no clue how prevalent it is in teens !

Been there and done that, more than once, and fortunately survived to not do it again. Consuming one litre of straight Rum in less than five minutes is enough to do some serious damage to a 15 yr old like I once was. Fortunately, by the time I reached college age, I no longer had the desire to drink so much in one sitting. Just as I told Steele Mama that there is not much difference in adding a zero to the end of a number to change it greatly, the same can be said for alcohol consumption. If I had consumed just one additional half litre of Rum on that particular night, I may not be typing today. After one is wasted, he cannot tell the difference between the on and off switch. The two become one without difference.

 

[Beach Runner]

Ok...This was brought up over in the other thread...but I'm kinda shocked by how many of you aren't letting your college kids go on spring break to the beach. Is it because they are farther away than we were- at Auburn?

I'm not trying to be insulting by any means, and respect reasons like cost, ect, but we never had problems with friends not being able to go. Please enlighten me.

So question is. Spring break...Yes or No and if No then when will they be old enough?

I let my daughter and her friends use our beach house starting her freshman year in college. I mean, she lived in Boston; if I couldn't trust her at the beach, I couldn't trust her in Boston. I might as well make her live at home and go to the local college! Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), she only had one friend at MIT who "did" spring break. Everyone else stayed in Cambridge/Boston and caught up on their studying. How weird is that?

Her sophomore year they got a bit rowdy - neighbors complained - Silly String all over the pool deck and pool full of beer cans. So this year (junior year) I have laid down the law. If they don't keep the house as I expect it to be cared for (and I will drive down at the end of the week and check it out) and if they bother neighbors, next year they'll be paying for their own motel rooms for spring break. I think they'll act appropriately. Momma didn't raise no fool!

As an aside, "back in the day" when I was an undergraduate at Tulane, I just went to the beach with my friends. My mother had no clue when my spring break was. There wasn't the Internet then for parents to check up on our holiday schedules, our course websites, etc., etc. I would just tell Mom that my last exam was two days later than it really was, so she'd make airline reservations for me from NOLA to ATL on that day, and my friends and I would stay in NOLA and party. I studied hard; I played hard. That's the way Tulane kids rolled when I was there.

 

[peapod1980]

Ok...So question is. Spring break...Yes or No and if No then when will they be old enough?

We're at least 5 years away from it, so this is just projection on my part:
Not sure, not until college, won't pay for it.

 

[Kimmifunn]

Ok. Got it. Dbuck...didn't realize yours was in HS. Totally makes sense. We were always supervised in high school. In college our parents just paid for it. I guess they didn't think about it since everyone else's parents paid for it. Or we were just brats who threw a fit if they said no.

Everyone is totally reasonable.

I'm with you BR...If you can trust them off at school they should be able to handle it. But with all the people- like Smiley J- who guzzle a gallon of rum, I can see where the concern lies.