Friday, December 19th?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This week is filled with tests for my high schoolers. Yes, they will be in school.

Agreed. This is always a very busy week for high school classes.

[Anonymous]

I can't understand why you would need another day off before 2 straight weeks off. Unless you have travel plans that were unavoidable, of course they will go to school. And I will go to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question… is anyone actually sending their kids to school on Friday, December 19th?
With the holidays basically here, I feel like attendance has to be super light. Curious what other families are doing — going in, taking the day off, or already in holiday mode?

Even in ES I stressed to my kids that unless they are legitimately sick, they go to school. If school is open, they are there. That is the expectation in our family. Because we always expected this it just became part of our family culture. I never had any forward-thinking strategy other than that is just what we do.

Fast forward to my kid's first semester at college and he only missed one early 8 a.m. class (set his alarm clock wrong). He told me just recently that he has friends who skipped classes but said that "wasn't my thing". So far it has worked out well.

All this to say, with parenting you do not need a big proclamation of how things will be with your kids. It is every day, consistent examples that really sink in with them.

There is another approach, especially as the kids get older, which is to let them manage it on their own. They will make the choice in college and the workplace to go or call out. If my HS kids say they don't want to go (just a party day, sub all week, done with the work), I call them in excused. When grades slip, maybe I'll take a different approach but it hasn't happened yet.

It’s better if you set habits now. Do you want them to not go into work just because they don’t feel like it?

+1
It isn't as if we tell our 7 year olds, "you decide when you want to go to bed, honey". No, we show them that there is an appropriate time to go to bed that will benefit their health. It is called parenting.

16 isn't 7. I hope you aren't still telling your teenagers when to go to bed.

Do you get personal days at your job? How did you learn when you really needed to take one and when you should probably tough it out? It's the same as doing a kid's laundry for them or arranging all of their social activities or discussing their grades with teachers for them and then expecting them at 18 to be able to jump into their life. All of these skills require practice.

Yes, adults get PTO. We tend not to get two weeks off for winter break and a week off for spring break and every religious holiday and every federal holiday and 9 weeks for summer break. We use that PTO to take vacation over those breaks to do things with our kids and have to find child care for them on the days that we don't have PTO to cover, because I don't get 12 or more weeks of PTO a year.

So no, a kid deciding to take a day off before a 2 week break is not the same thing as a parent taking PTO from work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question… is anyone actually sending their kids to school on Friday, December 19th?
With the holidays basically here, I feel like attendance has to be super light. Curious what other families are doing — going in, taking the day off, or already in holiday mode?

Even in ES I stressed to my kids that unless they are legitimately sick, they go to school. If school is open, they are there. That is the expectation in our family. Because we always expected this it just became part of our family culture. I never had any forward-thinking strategy other than that is just what we do.

Fast forward to my kid's first semester at college and he only missed one early 8 a.m. class (set his alarm clock wrong). He told me just recently that he has friends who skipped classes but said that "wasn't my thing". So far it has worked out well.

All this to say, with parenting you do not need a big proclamation of how things will be with your kids. It is every day, consistent examples that really sink in with them.

There is another approach, especially as the kids get older, which is to let them manage it on their own. They will make the choice in college and the workplace to go or call out. If my HS kids say they don't want to go (just a party day, sub all week, done with the work), I call them in excused. When grades slip, maybe I'll take a different approach but it hasn't happened yet.

Ok. My kids will keep practicing real-life skills.

It’s better if you set habits now. Do you want them to not go into work just because they don’t feel like it?

+1
It isn't as if we tell our 7 year olds, "you decide when you want to go to bed, honey". No, we show them that there is an appropriate time to go to bed that will benefit their health. It is called parenting.

16 isn't 7. I hope you aren't still telling your teenagers when to go to bed.

Do you get personal days at your job? How did you learn when you really needed to take one and when you should probably tough it out? It's the same as doing a kid's laundry for them or arranging all of their social activities or discussing their grades with teachers for them and then expecting them at 18 to be able to jump into their life. All of these skills require practice.

Yes, adults get PTO. We tend not to get two weeks off for winter break and a week off for spring break and every religious holiday and every federal holiday and 9 weeks for summer break. We use that PTO to take vacation over those breaks to do things with our kids and have to find child care for them on the days that we don't have PTO to cover, because I don't get 12 or more weeks of PTO a year.

So no, a kid deciding to take a day off before a 2 week break is not the same thing as a parent taking PTO from work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, they have two full weeks off after. Friday is a normal school day with normal work.

One kid has a 4 hour party on Friday and then FLE. I know because they asked parents to come help make and serve the food.

But why does it matter what anyone else is doing? Make your decision. If your kid is worried about being the only one or missing out, have them ask their friends what's happening. It's very school dependent.

A 4 hour party? That is kind of ridiculous. I am a teacher home sick and we have a party on Friday but it is one hour. We still have stuff to do!

Wow. I’ve been teaching 33 years and we’ve always been limited to one hour.

I’ve done 2, but that’s the limit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Serious question… is anyone actually sending their kids to school on Friday, December 19th?
With the holidays basically here, I feel like attendance has to be super light. Curious what other families are doing — going in, taking the day off, or already in holiday mode?

Even in ES I stressed to my kids that unless they are legitimately sick, they go to school. If school is open, they are there. That is the expectation in our family. Because we always expected this it just became part of our family culture. I never had any forward-thinking strategy other than that is just what we do.

Fast forward to my kid's first semester at college and he only missed one early 8 a.m. class (set his alarm clock wrong). He told me just recently that he has friends who skipped classes but said that "wasn't my thing". So far it has worked out well.

All this to say, with parenting you do not need a big proclamation of how things will be with your kids. It is every day, consistent examples that really sink in with them.

There is another approach, especially as the kids get older, which is to let them manage it on their own. They will make the choice in college and the workplace to go or call out. If my HS kids say they don't want to go (just a party day, sub all week, done with the work), I call them in excused. When grades slip, maybe I'll take a different approach but it hasn't happened yet.

It’s better if you set habits now. Do you want them to not go into work just because they don’t feel like it?

I’ve been working for almost 30 years and I have taken personal days several times when I “didn’t feel like going to work”. That’s what those days are for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes because I HAVE TO WORK! Or did you forget that lots of kids have two working parents?

But when they’re middle school and high school, they can stay home by themselves.

[Anonymous]

OP, you must have ES kids. I remember those days fondly. PJ/cozy Holiday Parties. My MS and HS kids have work and tests all week until Friday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you must have ES kids. I remember those days fondly. PJ/cozy Holiday Parties. My MS and HS kids have work and tests all week until Friday.

Same here. They have at least one test every day this week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, you must have ES kids. I remember those days fondly. PJ/cozy Holiday Parties. My MS and HS kids have work and tests all week until Friday.

Same here. They have at least one test every day this week.

AP GOVT TEST Tomorrow
MATH T- Doubble Quiz Thursday
English Summative Essay due by Friday on Schology
Oceanography Test on Thursday
AP Psych They had Test on Wednesday

[Anonymous]

Two parent working family here with two ES kids—of course they will go to school. Sending them to a day camp/center costs us $200-250 per day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes because I HAVE TO WORK! Or did you forget that lots of kids have two working parents?

But when they’re middle school and high school, they can stay home by themselves.

Letting your high schooler stay home to doom scroll when they need to be finishing up assignments before winter break is dumb. I need your kids at school because if they don’t finish the assignment this week, the chances they forget everything about it when we return in 2 weeks and have to do it then and do poorly on it are quite high. Unless you’re actually traveling and won’t be here, please freaking send your kids to school.

[Anonymous]

That’s the day of all the class parties in our ES, so yes my kids will be there!

[Anonymous]

Even if the teachers are having celebrations that day, your kid should go to school. It’s better for them to socialize or watch a movie with classmates than for them to be on their cell phones.

[Anonymous]

The kids have speeches to present and formative quizzes. They do not have movies in MS quite like the ES days.