Beach Week

[Anonymous]

Never too soon for this topic! My DD approached me about beach week. Any do's and don'ts from parents with experience, such how many in a house is doable, up front expectations, even the best place to go if it matters. I went three years in high school, and the thought sent shivers up my spine, but that was then and this is now.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it has changed much,

[Anonymous]

Make sure to pack lots of contraception and abortifacients.

[Anonymous]

Customs seem to vary by school. My DCs class went to Dewey Beach. Not sure how this comes about since it certainly isn't a school sanctioned event but it just seems to happen. Many of the kids class went. They were the only high school there that week so it seemed pretty tame. Houses usually have capacity limits so it varies by house. Most seemed to have 9-10 kids in them.

For the kids in my DCs house we had them all go to the presentation put on by the Dewey/OC police - it's something the Bethesda/Potomac schools organize every year. It was definitely worthwhile. We also had a kid/parent meeting a couple of weeks before to go over ground rules.

Everyone came back alive and really none the worse for wear. I honestly don't think they got in to any more trouble there than they might here, although my DCs particular group of friends are pretty good kids. Pretty sure they are getting into more trouble in college than they did at beach week.

[Anonymous]

So, PP, is your DC a boy or a girl?

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

I've had 3 kids go through beach week, from 2 high schools. Every group of kids we've known has a parent who stays either in the house (rarely) or within 5 miles of the high schoolers' house. Some parents rotate the week (one parent drives down with the kids, gets the keys to the beach house, etc then one parent stays for 2 or 3 days in the middle of the week and a third parent(s) comes for the last day(s) to help drive the kids back home). Other parents share a house for the week. DH has been part of a dad/golf week. Thankfully, there's never been a hospital or police station visit. Then 8-12 weeks beach week, the same parents drop off the same kids at college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, PP, is your DC a boy or a girl?

Boy. My DDs school didn't really do beach week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had 3 kids go through beach week, from 2 high schools. Every group of kids we've known has a parent who stays either in the house (rarely) or within 5 miles of the high schoolers' house. Some parents rotate the week (one parent drives down with the kids, gets the keys to the beach house, etc then one parent stays for 2 or 3 days in the middle of the week and a third parent(s) comes for the last day(s) to help drive the kids back home). Other parents share a house for the week. DH has been part of a dad/golf week. Thankfully, there's never been a hospital or police station visit. Then 8-12 weeks beach week, the same parents drop off the same kids at college.

+1 we had parents rotate in. The lease clearly states an adult over the age of 25 must be on premises. The realtors do check and the kids can be thrown out of the house instantly if this is not the case. The police will also watch the kids move in and if they seen alcohol being moved onto the premises, they will confiscate the alcohol and potentially shut down the rental. With the Gansler fiasco, Bethany is not hospitable to group rentals as much as in the past. My DD ended up in the Outer Banks and every house had a least 1 if not three chaperones the entire week. The police drive around at night and will shut down parties so it is harder than in the past for large scale house parties.

[Anonymous]

Why is this in the college forum?

[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.

Depends. My friends and I would have a mix of parents and older siblings trade off chaperoning duties. Our parents would not let us stay in the house alone.

[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.

Actually Doug Gansler goes.

[Anonymous]

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?

There seems to be quite a bit of variance in experiences. Some groups and some locations appear to be well chaperoned and without access to alcohol. However, there are also plenty of groups who are basically on their own and there is plenty of alcohol consumed during the week. It really depends on the kids.

[Anonymous]

We had never heard of Beach Week before moving here a few years ago. I was inclined to let our DC go last year, however ending up forbidding it after a couple of ill advised incidents during the spring term. We decided it was just too much temptation and too high risk of somthing going wrong. It was miserable when so many of her friends were at Beach Week and she wasn't allowed to go. I still think it was the right call.