Beach Week - Any BTDT parents from the area have advice?

[Anonymous]

My daughter and her friends who are graduating from an MCPS high school are trying to get a group together for Beach Week. I told her that I'm keeping an open mind at this point and want to hear their thoughts on how they envision this going?

Are there any BTDT parents who have allowed this who can share details on how they got a house at the beach? Did one parent sign the lease? All parents? Were their particular realtors that you worked with that were more open to this than others? What ground rules did you enforce? Do the kids go to Ocean City, Rehoboth, etc.?

[Anonymous]

It doesn't happen unless parents get involved. Something to think about ...

[Anonymous]

I was a participant after junior and senior years of high school. I cannot imagine at this point ever letting my kid go. It was total debauchery. I would definitely never sign a lease and no decent place will rent to beach weekers. We stayed at houses of friends parents. I’m we were basically drunk the entire time and I lost my virginity there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It doesn't happen unless parents get involved. Something to think about ...

What do you mean?

[Anonymous]

MCPS kids go to all the beaches you mentioned.

I allowed my children. They are going off to college in the fall and if they are not ready by beach week, well.

But, big but if they have not shown good judgement before going beach week is not required.

My advice is to drive them down and pick them up. Yes, a pain .But should now no risk to drinking and driving.

I liked them having a house in Rehoboth or Bethany vs Ocean City. Less people to deal with, higher chance they will drink at their place than on the boardwalk.

Send lots of snacks. Parents usually divide up. I felt if mine were going they should go to grocery store and plan themselves.

The need to leave the house they rent in the same condition they found it in or it comes out of their monies.

My kids stayed at their friends parents beach houses or ours so no advice there.

Remind them many times the police are going to issue citations for open alcohol and drinking in public. If they are going to drink need to do it at the house.

[Anonymous]

DS is going, but it’s our house and DH will be the chaperone the entire time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS kids go to all the beaches you mentioned.

I allowed my children. They are going off to college in the fall and if they are not ready by beach week, well.

But, big but if they have not shown good judgement before going beach week is not required.

My advice is to drive them down and pick them up. Yes, a pain .But should now no risk to drinking and driving.

I liked them having a house in Rehoboth or Bethany vs Ocean City. Less people to deal with, higher chance they will drink at their place than on the boardwalk.

Send lots of snacks. Parents usually divide up. I felt if mine were going they should go to grocery store and plan themselves.

The need to leave the house they rent in the same condition they found it in or it comes out of their monies.

My kids stayed at their friends parents beach houses or ours so no advice there.

Remind them many times the police are going to issue citations for open alcohol and drinking in public. If they are going to drink need to do it at the house.

Very helpful. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS kids go to all the beaches you mentioned.

I allowed my children. They are going off to college in the fall and if they are not ready by beach week, well.

But, big but if they have not shown good judgement before going beach week is not required.

My advice is to drive them down and pick them up. Yes, a pain .But should now no risk to drinking and driving.

I liked them having a house in Rehoboth or Bethany vs Ocean City. Less people to deal with, higher chance they will drink at their place than on the boardwalk.

Send lots of snacks. Parents usually divide up. I felt if mine were going they should go to grocery store and plan themselves.

The need to leave the house they rent in the same condition they found it in or it comes out of their monies.

My kids stayed at their friends parents beach houses or ours so no advice there.

Remind them many times the police are going to issue citations for open alcohol and drinking in public. If they are going to drink need to do it at the house.

Very helpful. Thank you.

One more thing pertains to males or females. Always get your own drink. You poor it. If you can not remember dump the drink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS is going, but it’s our house and DH will be the chaperone the entire time.

That would be ideal, but the couple of parents with beach houses are not offering (which is understandable). I've heard that some groups have a parent or two chaperoning sometimes. How did that work out having a parent there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS kids go to all the beaches you mentioned.

I allowed my children. They are going off to college in the fall and if they are not ready by beach week, well.

But, big but if they have not shown good judgement before going beach week is not required.

My advice is to drive them down and pick them up. Yes, a pain .But should now no risk to drinking and driving.

I liked them having a house in Rehoboth or Bethany vs Ocean City. Less people to deal with, higher chance they will drink at their place than on the boardwalk.

Send lots of snacks. Parents usually divide up. I felt if mine were going they should go to grocery store and plan themselves.

The need to leave the house they rent in the same condition they found it in or it comes out of their monies.

My kids stayed at their friends parents beach houses or ours so no advice there.

Remind them many times the police are going to issue citations for open alcohol and drinking in public. If they are going to drink need to do it at the house.

This is great advice. You need to know that beach week is a bender. It's drinking drinking drinking. Yes, even your kid. If your kid is experienced with drinking, knows their limits, etc. then it's fine. If your kid doesn't have experience with parties, drunk friends, potentially dangerous situations, etc... it's a no go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS kids go to all the beaches you mentioned.

I allowed my children. They are going off to college in the fall and if they are not ready by beach week, well.

But, big but if they have not shown good judgement before going beach week is not required.

My advice is to drive them down and pick them up. Yes, a pain .But should now no risk to drinking and driving.

I liked them having a house in Rehoboth or Bethany vs Ocean City. Less people to deal with, higher chance they will drink at their place than on the boardwalk.

Send lots of snacks. Parents usually divide up. I felt if mine were going they should go to grocery store and plan themselves.

The need to leave the house they rent in the same condition they found it in or it comes out of their monies.

My kids stayed at their friends parents beach houses or ours so no advice there.

Remind them many times the police are going to issue citations for open alcohol and drinking in public. If they are going to drink need to do it at the house.

I agree with this but I prefer Ocean City.

There is public transportation. They plan activities. They have been doing this for decades. More non drinking stuff to do.

Nobody is 'drinking on the boardwalk"

They might go to the boardwalk one time but OC is 150+ streets most kids don't stay near the boardwalk or go there unless they do the volleyball tournament.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS kids go to all the beaches you mentioned.

I allowed my children. They are going off to college in the fall and if they are not ready by beach week, well.

But, big but if they have not shown good judgement before going beach week is not required.

My advice is to drive them down and pick them up. Yes, a pain .But should now no risk to drinking and driving.

I liked them having a house in Rehoboth or Bethany vs Ocean City. Less people to deal with, higher chance they will drink at their place than on the boardwalk.

Send lots of snacks. Parents usually divide up. I felt if mine were going they should go to grocery store and plan themselves.

The need to leave the house they rent in the same condition they found it in or it comes out of their monies.

My kids stayed at their friends parents beach houses or ours so no advice there.

Remind them many times the police are going to issue citations for open alcohol and drinking in public. If they are going to drink need to do it at the house.

This is great advice. You need to know that beach week is a bender. It's drinking drinking drinking. Yes, even your kid. If your kid is experienced with drinking, knows their limits, etc. then it's fine. If your kid doesn't have experience with parties, drunk friends, potentially dangerous situations, etc... it's a no go.

Thanks! And I totally agree with your statement as well.

[Anonymous]

It was not an option in our house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is going, but it’s our house and DH will be the chaperone the entire time.

That would be ideal, but the couple of parents with beach houses are not offering (which is understandable). I've heard that some groups have a parent or two chaperoning sometimes. How did that work out having a parent there?

Parent has to be there. Parent has to sign leases and take full responsibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is going, but it’s our house and DH will be the chaperone the entire time.

That would be ideal, but the couple of parents with beach houses are not offering (which is understandable). I've heard that some groups have a parent or two chaperoning sometimes. How did that work out having a parent there?

Parent has to be there. Parent has to sign leases and take full responsibility.

A parent has to sign the lease, but there is not generally a requirement that the parent be on site. What we did, same as most people we know, is first have a meeting with parents to make sure everyone agreed on rules, then require the boys to attend the presentation the DE and Ocean City police put on about Beach Week and its perils. We had one parent pick up the key and take photos of the place (in Dewey) before the boys arrived, and another couple to supervise their clean-up efforts. We also had parent volunteers stay in the area (several had beach houses) so there was at least one local parent at all times.

I would not have permitted my son to go if he and his friends had not have a good track record of being responsible. There were some houses where bad things happened, but our group didn’t do anything worse than drinking. Their landlady lived in the apartment above the beach house and gave them great reviews. They left the place in great condition and we got the entire deposit back.

We were dreading it, but it turned out fine. The kids were very grateful we let them go.