Beach Week

[Anonymous]

I'm a DCPS parent (9th and 4th grader). I've never heard of beach week, is this a MD/VA thing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a DCPS parent (9th and 4th grader). I've never heard of beach week, is this a MD/VA thing?

I know some Wilson kids who did Beach Week. I did it at Sidwell years ago, although I don't think it's as much of a thing now (maybe they all go to the Cote d'Azur instead of Rehoboth).

[Anonymous]

It amazes the hell out of me that parents actually let their high schoolers go off on their own and party unsupervised for a week. And I am by no means a conservative parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It amazes the hell out of me that parents actually let their high schoolers go off on their own and party unsupervised for a week. And I am by no means a conservative parent.

So how did you handle it with your high schooler? And how did you handle college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It amazes the hell out of me that parents actually let their high schoolers go off on their own and party unsupervised for a week. And I am by no means a conservative parent.

The students attending beach week are typically graduating seniors who will be "off on their own" and "unsupervised" at university within a few months. At that point in their lives, if they can't handle a few days without supervision and manage their own parties without getting arrested on in a delicate/bad situation, we have bigger problems than just beach week.

Except for two notable occasions, I haven't outright restricted my teens' social lives since they turned 16. We use the period between then and high school graduation as "adulthood with a safety net" for lack of a better term, to give them a chance to practice handling the responsibilities they will face in the adult world while we are still around to step in if things start to crash and burn. They're 17 and more or less covering the cost themselves -- their choices are their own at this point and I just have to trust that they will behave sensibly based on how they have been raised.

Admittedly, I am a lot more comfortable with them attending this thing at age 17 than I would be if they were already 18...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It amazes the hell out of me that parents actually let their high schoolers go off on their own and party unsupervised for a week. And I am by no means a conservative parent.

I was once similarly amazed. When the time comes, you may come to realize that college drop off comes a few weeks after senior beach week. How can you trust your kid to do one and not the other?

[Anonymous]

I guess Beach Week is a MVA thing. Where I come from no one has ever heard of it (and I grew up near a beach!).

We've talked about it, and DD is not going. She has no interest. We're going to take a family trip, our last one all together before she goes off to college. She's busy planning that. She's very social and has a nice group of friends, but Beach Week is not in any of her friends' plans.

[Anonymous]

Don't impede, don't promote. 18 yr olds can't rent. Beach week doesn't happen without parents arranging it.

I was not willing to promote beach week. I was not going to impede either. At 18 they are adults.

Left to arrange on their own - 18yr olds will think it's a great idea and will discuss it at length - but, in the end, it often doesn't happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I never heard of Beach Week in High School, so this is a strange concept for me. Is this something where the kids go off on their own, or do parents typically stay at the house with them?

Definitely no parents around and often several high schools pick the same beach so it is multiple large groups of unsupervised 17/18 year olds.

Very fun in 1991-1993, but I wouldn't want my kid to go.