Beach trip with teen friends

[Anonymous]

wow, consensus seems no here. I am surprised! When I grew up in Germany, at that age we would go camping for the weekend by a lake etc. Of course there was some drinking and flirting and stuff but nothing dangerous etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow, consensus seems no here. I am surprised! When I grew up in Germany, at that age we would go camping for the weekend by a lake etc. Of course there was some drinking and flirting and stuff but nothing dangerous etc.

I'm not sure if you livein the DMV, but going to one of the Maryland beaches is way, way, WAY different than going to a lake.
We're talking 5,000 - 10,000 kids at the beach, a lake... well, not as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wow, consensus seems no here. I am surprised! When I grew up in Germany, at that age we would go camping for the weekend by a lake etc. Of course there was some drinking and flirting and stuff but nothing dangerous etc.

I'm not sure if you livein the DMV, but going to one of the Maryland beaches is way, way, WAY different than going to a lake.
We're talking 5,000 - 10,000 kids at the beach, a lake... well, not as much.

Ocean or lake there will be just as much drinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wow, consensus seems no here. I am surprised! When I grew up in Germany, at that age we would go camping for the weekend by a lake etc. Of course there was some drinking and flirting and stuff but nothing dangerous etc.

I'm not sure if you livein the DMV, but going to one of the Maryland beaches is way, way, WAY different than going to a lake.
We're talking 5,000 - 10,000 kids at the beach, a lake... well, not as much.

Ocean or lake there will be just as much drinking.

NP here.
Yes, there's the dame amount of drinking, but the two locations can't even be compared. It's apples & oranges. Fights, clubs, etc, there's so many more ways to get into trouble at the beach thang at a lake.

You're talking less than 100 kids at a lake with literally thousands of kids at the beach. Surely you see the difference... unless you've never been to the beach with thousands of teenagers before?

[Anonymous]

My best friend and I used to go to her grandparents' condo in Florida every summer just the two of us from age 16 to about 22, ALONE (the horror!).
We ate crappy food, drank crappy drinks on occasion, and smoked cigars on the beach (so gross). We also made amazing memories that we still talk about 20 years later.

OP, you know your kid best. If you think he is mature enough to handle it, why does it matter what we think? It's silly though, to assume all teens would raise hell just because there are no parents around. Not to mention the ones that would are doing it whether or not they are at the beach or at home...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow, consensus seems no here. I am surprised! When I grew up in Germany, at that age we would go camping for the weekend by a lake etc. Of course there was some drinking and flirting and stuff but nothing dangerous etc.

I'm the OP. I grew up in Germany too. Drinking is also legal at age 16 there, so that's a huge difference. No driving yet, either, and I grew up in a major city--and we had a much better public transportation system on which we could rely to get to places. Apfel und Orangen.

[Anonymous]

im super permissive but i would not permit this

[Anonymous]

im super permissive but i would not permit this

[Anonymous]

No way would -- or did -- I allow a teen trip at that age! There are too many risks, especially for a 16 year old! What good could possibly come from a bunch of unsupervised 16-18 year olds being at the beach by themselves?

[Anonymous]

This thread makes me think of my high school senior year spring break trip. I was a good kid in high school, good grades, never got into any trouble. My parents were pretty strict. So when my girlfriends planned a spring break trip to daytona, I assumed no way in hell would my parents let me go. But to my utter shock they did!!

We were able to stay in a timeshare one of the girls parebts had. Suddenly I was alone,no supervision, and surrounded by tons of free drinking, partying and college boys. During the day we zoned out on the beach. But once late afternoon came we drank like crazy. We danced on the beach and we brought boys back to our condo.

We were good girls but something about being alone and also the distance-no one knew us, nothing we did would give us a reputation, etc- it felt very freeing. We all had sex (responsibly). We stayed together and I don't recall a situation where any of us were in danger or anything.
It was like we acted like totally different people.

Looking back at it, it was definitely fun. I'm not ashamed of it- it was definitely a little slutty but hey, we were 17 and 18 and letting loose.

But, if my daughter asked to go in high school, I'd say no. I feel like times are different now and the danger is higher. Might not be actually true but I feel like it is. Back then no one in Daytona even looked at ID's, underage drinking everywhere and the cops were pretty chill unless someone was causing problems. Today it's much stricter and one legal misstep can alter the kids life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me think of my high school senior year spring break trip. I was a good kid in high school, good grades, never got into any trouble. My parents were pretty strict. So when my girlfriends planned a spring break trip to daytona, I assumed no way in hell would my parents let me go. But to my utter shock they did!!

We were able to stay in a timeshare one of the girls parebts had. Suddenly I was alone,no supervision, and surrounded by tons of free drinking, partying and college boys. During the day we zoned out on the beach. But once late afternoon came we drank like crazy. We danced on the beach and we brought boys back to our condo.

We were good girls but something about being alone and also the distance-no one knew us, nothing we did would give us a reputation, etc- it felt very freeing. We all had sex (responsibly). We stayed together and I don't recall a situation where any of us were in danger or anything.
It was like we acted like totally different people.

Looking back at it, it was definitely fun. I'm not ashamed of it- it was definitely a little slutty but hey, we were 17 and 18 and letting loose.

But, if my daughter asked to go in high school, I'd say no. I feel like times are different now and the danger is higher. Might not be actually true but I feel like it is. Back then no one in Daytona even looked at ID's, underage drinking everywhere and the cops were pretty chill unless someone was causing problems. Today it's much stricter and one legal misstep can alter the kids life.

I totally agree, it wasn't a trend to slip a roofie into an unsuspecting girls drinks back then.
We were at a bar for an engagement party & for some strange reason they made you leave your drink on a table outside the bathroom (maybe because of the glass?). I can't tell you how many girls I watched put their drink down, go into the bathroom & pick it right back up & start drinking. Nobody was "manning" the table to make sure the drinks weren't messed with in some way, it was utterly shocking.

I know drinks nowadays can be expensive, but either finish it before you go in, have a girlfriend wait outside & hold it (girls not go into the bathroom together?? gasp!) or just toss it & buy a new one.
The $5 - $10 you'll spend on that new drink is worth it for peace of mind.