No kids here, but if there were the answer would be me laughing at the question. Just as my parents would have done, had I been foolish enough to ask.
Would You Pay for Your Child's Spring Break Experience?
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pb4uski
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
+1 If someone did some of the dumb-a$$ things that we did when we were that age they would probably be in the slammer. It's amazing nobody got hurt.
I recall at one party we were launching bottle rockets across the parking lot at another frat brother's apartment where they were also having a party and with the nice weather of course the windows were open and we finally diled it down to get one to go through the open window. Duh!!
And that was one of the milder stupid things we did.
On the topic, I only went to Spring Break once, my senior year. Four of us drove my car to Fort Lauderdale and we paid our own way..... however, the morning after we got there my car wouldn't start and it was a broken timing chain and cost $400 that I didn't have to repair so I got a loan from the Bank of Dad.
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+1
I never even considered going somewhere for spring break other than hike/camp in the mountains near where I went to school. I think most years I was busy with a job since so many other student workers went home over spring break.
In Galveston there used to be an annual fraternity/sorority weekend around spring break. It may be going on still but this was about 20 years ago. I went fishing one morning before dawn and was coming back through the Galveston beach area around noon. I inadvertently caught the "event." I got caught in a traffic jam where the eventual cause was a f/m activity on the trunk of a car - both naked. Various other stages of undress were on display along the seawall with few young women wearing the tops to their bathing suits. I can only assume that the heavy drinking hadn't started. I'm sure all of their parents would have been proud.
Philliefan33
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We did not pay for Spring Break for our kids. DD1 was on the track team, in season during Spring Break, so never even had the opportunity to go.
When DD2 was a college sophomore, she presented me with the wonderful package deal that was being offered for Spring Break, and asked if Mom & Dad would pay for it. I told her no. She then said "Well, how about half? Sally's parents are paying half for her, and they are not nearly as well-off as we are". That's when I channeled Bill Cosby and replied "Let me make this clear. Dad and I are doing okay. You are broke." No Spring Break trip for her that year, and I'm sure she was disappointed but she learned a lesson. The following Summers she worked more hours and saved more of her pay. She got a job at school for Junior & Senior year. She managed to pay her way to Spring Break for two years, and had a good time*.
*She told me some stories that make me shake my head. But you're only young once, and no one went to jail. I'm also not naive enough to believe that she told me everything.
When DD2 was a college sophomore, she presented me with the wonderful package deal that was being offered for Spring Break, and asked if Mom & Dad would pay for it. I told her no. She then said "Well, how about half? Sally's parents are paying half for her, and they are not nearly as well-off as we are". That's when I channeled Bill Cosby and replied "Let me make this clear. Dad and I are doing okay. You are broke." No Spring Break trip for her that year, and I'm sure she was disappointed but she learned a lesson. The following Summers she worked more hours and saved more of her pay. She got a job at school for Junior & Senior year. She managed to pay her way to Spring Break for two years, and had a good time*.
*She told me some stories that make me shake my head. But you're only young once, and no one went to jail. I'm also not naive enough to believe that she told me everything.
Mulligan
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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+1 If someone did some of the dumb-a$$ things that we did when we were that age they would probably be in the slammer. It's amazing nobody got hurt.
I recall at one party we were launching bottle rockets across the parking lot at another frat brother's apartment where they were also having a party and with the nice weather of course the windows were open and we finally diled it down to get one to go through the open window. Duh!!
And that was one of the milder stupid things we did.
On the topic, I only went to Spring Break once, my senior year. Four of us drove my car to Fort Lauderdale and we paid our own way..... however, the morning after we got there my car wouldn't start and it was a broken timing chain and cost $400 that I didn't have to repair so I got a loan from the Bank of Dad.
Hmmm....Me thinks you are pulling your punches about what really went on... This generation of college kids couldn't begin to get away with the crap that was happening 30 years ago. "Boys will be boys" is not an accepted justification for anything anymore.
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My kids are still pre-college. But my initial instinct says Heck NO!
I don't think they'd be able to afford it on their own since I'll be supporting them at the poverty level - not the partying level - during college.
I don't think they'd be able to afford it on their own since I'll be supporting them at the poverty level - not the partying level - during college.
When I went to college, Spring Break wasn't a term we used. It was in the 50's, before "Where the Boys Are" (1960) made it what it is today.
It was Spring, in Maine, and we didn't have to go anywhere else.
It was "IVY" Weekend. An extra day. The girls were imported from Westbrook Jr, Colby, U Maine, Middlebury, Radcliff, Mt Holyoke, Simmons, Smith, Skidmore and Wheaton... and DW, from Sargent (B.U.) We turned the fraternity house over to the girls for the weekend... No guys upstairs to the rooms.
Friday nite, the big dance... one year, Les Elgart. Saturday, the brothers and the dates, off to Popham Beach for the huge lobster bake... seaweed and lobsters on the hot rock fire bed. Two to three lobsters for every person. And... beer. Songs and sandunes... most of the group back to the Fraternity for evening house parties... some slept on the beach. Sunday morning the great reknown "Get Well" party, and a fantastic game of "Thumper"... then on a Fraternity prowl... to all 12 fraternities... a cup of cheer in each one. The walkways of the college filled with guys and their dates... Many alumni back for a relive of their college day. I remember Gary Merrill and Bette Davis at our house... They knew how to party. Sunday afternoon was "free time", for some a trip down to the college marina for a coldwater sail around Casco Bay.
Sunday night (for the girls who could stay over 'til Monday) a dreamy evening in the livingroom, around the fireplace, or at the grand piano for singing, and maybe a visit from the Meddiebempsters. We squeezed a lot into three days.
For the four years I was there, never a time when there was an incident that made the news. About the worst was the time that the college newspaper announced that I had lost a leg to a shark, during the alumni swim meet. Mom got the paper a week later, became upset, and called the college president to find out what happened. He was very kind... and never laughed. After that, he would always ask how my mom was doing.
A different time. Nice memories. My own kids paid their way.
It was Spring, in Maine, and we didn't have to go anywhere else.
It was "IVY" Weekend. An extra day. The girls were imported from Westbrook Jr, Colby, U Maine, Middlebury, Radcliff, Mt Holyoke, Simmons, Smith, Skidmore and Wheaton... and DW, from Sargent (B.U.) We turned the fraternity house over to the girls for the weekend... No guys upstairs to the rooms.
Friday nite, the big dance... one year, Les Elgart. Saturday, the brothers and the dates, off to Popham Beach for the huge lobster bake... seaweed and lobsters on the hot rock fire bed. Two to three lobsters for every person. And... beer. Songs and sandunes... most of the group back to the Fraternity for evening house parties... some slept on the beach. Sunday morning the great reknown "Get Well" party, and a fantastic game of "Thumper"... then on a Fraternity prowl... to all 12 fraternities... a cup of cheer in each one. The walkways of the college filled with guys and their dates... Many alumni back for a relive of their college day. I remember Gary Merrill and Bette Davis at our house... They knew how to party. Sunday afternoon was "free time", for some a trip down to the college marina for a coldwater sail around Casco Bay.
Sunday night (for the girls who could stay over 'til Monday) a dreamy evening in the livingroom, around the fireplace, or at the grand piano for singing, and maybe a visit from the Meddiebempsters. We squeezed a lot into three days.
For the four years I was there, never a time when there was an incident that made the news. About the worst was the time that the college newspaper announced that I had lost a leg to a shark, during the alumni swim meet. Mom got the paper a week later, became upset, and called the college president to find out what happened. He was very kind... and never laughed. After that, he would always ask how my mom was doing.
A different time. Nice memories. My own kids paid their way.
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45th Birthday
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Our kids (senior and junior) have never asked to go on these sorts of spring break trips, although we probably would have paid some part if they had. We have been thrilled that they have always assumed they would come home on break.
We pay all their college expenses. They work and earn money during the summer which they are encouraged to save, but spend as they wish. The senior (son) has now gotten religion as it gets closer to graduation (two months) and he realizes he's (mostly) off the payroll. Has been more careful about spending, although he will realize later the discipline should have started earlier. Plenty of time to recover from small mistakes.
We pay all their college expenses. They work and earn money during the summer which they are encouraged to save, but spend as they wish. The senior (son) has now gotten religion as it gets closer to graduation (two months) and he realizes he's (mostly) off the payroll. Has been more careful about spending, although he will realize later the discipline should have started earlier. Plenty of time to recover from small mistakes.
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Back in the late 70s, my school (USNA) had a one week break in March. Most people went home, usually traveling on their parents' dime. A few went to Florida. I suppose their parents mostly paid for that, too, since none of us had a job.
I had pretty much zero money all four years and no parental support at all, meaning I couldn't even afford to make it back home. So I stayed at school every spring break and most other holidays, like Thanksgiving; I did manage to scrape up enough cash to car pool home to Missouri for Christmas. The dining hall food was better when everyone else was gone, and the gym was empty, so it wasn't all bad.
I suspect that, like Walt34, my parents would have laughed at the question. Once I graduated high school, I was no longer their concern. However, if I had my own children, I honestly don't know what I'd do.
I had pretty much zero money all four years and no parental support at all, meaning I couldn't even afford to make it back home. So I stayed at school every spring break and most other holidays, like Thanksgiving; I did manage to scrape up enough cash to car pool home to Missouri for Christmas. The dining hall food was better when everyone else was gone, and the gym was empty, so it wasn't all bad.
I suspect that, like Walt34, my parents would have laughed at the question. Once I graduated high school, I was no longer their concern. However, if I had my own children, I honestly don't know what I'd do.
MikeWillRetire
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Yes, I would, but only if I could go too, you know, as a chaperone.
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Neither one of my kids ever asked me, but might hit their mom up for the cell phone bill, or some other "necessity" since they blew their cash on whatever.
This past spring break, my daughter and a bunch of kids went to Hilton Head and stayed in a big house on the beach with a gal who's parents allow such things to happen at their resort home. DD cooked a dinner or two, so it probably only cost her a few groceries.
This past spring break, my daughter and a bunch of kids went to Hilton Head and stayed in a big house on the beach with a gal who's parents allow such things to happen at their resort home. DD cooked a dinner or two, so it probably only cost her a few groceries.
