School age kids on vacation during school time

KathyPet · ‎03-09-2010

DH and I are on vacation in Myrtle BeAch this week. I expected to see a lot of pre-school kids here at the resort but I am really surprised at the large number of school age kids here. I was chatting with one woman in the pool yesterday and she had two kids about 7 or 10 with her. I asked her if school had started and she said yes but they had taken them out for the week. When I was in school in the 50's and early 60's school time was sacred. my parent's would never have dreamed of my losing a week of school to go on vacation. Guess it's all different now.

Financialgrl · ‎03-13-2010

If I drive about 12 miles and go over a mountain I'm probably where you live and our schools start about 10 days before the northern VA schools - mostly because the area is rural and many live on unpaved roads, the country back roads are sometimes the last to get sanded, etc. I'm soon to be 60 and my parents would not allow us to get out of school for anything. It was drilled into us that school was our JOB growing up and we were expected to treat it as such. If we stayed home sick we were told we didn't get well when the school bus came home at night. If you didn't go to school, you didn't get to go out with friends. I've seen this when I have been on cruises - there are kids there during times when there are no holidays when kids should be in school - I figure some may be homeschooled and some may be on year round school but I'm guessing most don't fall into these two categories.

qvcfreak · ‎03-10-2010

I never took our son out for vacation but I did for out of town funerals that were 3 or 4 days but we always brought the homework and assignments so they would be right on track. We also had teacher's email address and phone number in case we had questions.

AngusandBuddhasMom · ‎03-10-2010

School in my town starts Sept 4th. That being said I was fortunate enough to take my DD out of school when she attended grade school to go on vacation for 3 weeks each winter. We went to Hawaii with family and since that is the only time everyone could take off school was not an issue. She went on to graduate college with top honors so I doubt it effected her adversely.

faeriemoon · ‎03-14-2010

I don't think children should be taken out of school for vacations.

AngusandBuddhasMom · ‎03-10-2010

I think it depends on the child.

KathyPet · ‎03-09-2010

I can understand taking kids out of school.for a family emergency or even a trip,with educational value like to Europe but just for a week at the beach??? My parents would certainly,have never done it and neither did my DH and I when we were raising our kids.

Allegheny · ‎03-19-2010

This rarely happened when I went to school in the 60s, unless there was a family emergency. We were given homework assignments.

Now a days, it appears quite common. I know families that routinely take their school age children out of school for vacations. They are limited as to how many days a child can miss. But it still bothers me where they place their priorities.

AngusandBuddhasMom · ‎03-10-2010

Priorities? Really? So taking my A student child out for vacation means my priorities are lacking.OK then. I guess the fact that she has been working full-time since graduating college must be a fluke. Since she was raised by a parent whose priorities are lacking.

colliegirls · ‎05-13-2012

I have never and would never take my children out of school for a vacation. I assume many of the children I see out during the school year may be homeschooled.