...beach week in Ocean City....

[Anonymous]

Hello. So I was a kid from a blue collar house in the Midwest when I was a senior in high school back in the early 90s, so I don't have a personal frame of reference here.

My HS senior gently floated (pretended to ask as a courtesy) the idea that he and some buddies are planning on going to OC in June for Beach Week. He'll be 18 at the time, so realistically, there's only so much say I have here if he uses his own money, which is the plan.

Now...
I can think of a thousand reasons this is a terrible idea, but it also sounds like it could be fun and these are good kids. Mental tangents about what sleezeball enterprise is willing to rent lodging to a bunch of 18 year olds aside, tell me everything you can think of that I forgot to be worried about, and/or why this is probably just fine. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Just remind him that underage drinking and drugs are illegal. If he’s arrested it will quite possibly affect his college admission.
Get him condoms and tell him to use them.

Tell him not to do any stupid stuff like throw things off balconies.

Yes, it’s a lot of fun, but totally reckless. I was a good kid too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just remind him that underage drinking and drugs are illegal. If he’s arrested it will quite possibly affect his college admission.
Get him condoms and tell him to use them.

Tell him not to do any stupid stuff like throw things off balconies.

Yes, it’s a lot of fun, but totally reckless. I was a good kid too.

Solid advice. Thank you. -OP

[Anonymous]

I was 18 and my parents didn't let me goto the equivalent of beach week (in florida). It really is a terrible idea. So much could go wrong.

It didn't faze me much to be told no. I have never once felt I missed out on something, and I do feel this way about other things. I also never did colleg spring break beach trips because by spring of my freshmen year I understood such thinsg were cheesy.

[Anonymous]

I did beach week when I was 17 and 18 and had a great time. I wasn't a partier, nor were my friends, bur we still enjoyed ourselves, four girls in an un-air conditioned ground floor rental. Back before cell phones, so the only contact we had with our parents was an occasional call from a phone booth.

That said, I'll be wreck when my kid will want to go next summer after his senior year....

I agree with the PP who said remind DS about drugs and underage drinking. I do know someone whose kid's college acceptance was rescinded after he was arrested for a DUI.

Condoms.

DO NOT DIVE INTO THE WATER. DO NOT THROW SOMEONE ELSE INTO THE WATER.

Condoms.

Only swim at the beach when the life guards are on duty.

Do not get in the car when the driver has been drinking. Do not worry about being called a p***y or anything like that. Let them say that and let them go wrap the car around a utility pole.

[Anonymous]

I went to beach week in SC when I was 17. Total destruction. Crazy. Arrests were made. Luckily I did not get caught.

[Anonymous]

You could always offer to pay for an alternative trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did beach week when I was 17 and 18 and had a great time. I wasn't a partier, nor were my friends, bur we still enjoyed ourselves, four girls in an un-air conditioned ground floor rental. Back before cell phones, so the only contact we had with our parents was an occasional call from a phone booth.

That said, I'll be wreck when my kid will want to go next summer after his senior year....

I agree with the PP who said remind DS about drugs and underage drinking. I do know someone whose kid's college acceptance was rescinded after he was arrested for a DUI.

Condoms.

DO NOT DIVE INTO THE WATER. DO NOT THROW SOMEONE ELSE INTO THE WATER.

Condoms.

Only swim at the beach when the life guards are on duty.

Do not get in the car when the driver has been drinking. Do not worry about being called a p***y or anything like that. Let them say that and let them go wrap the car around a utility pole.

OP here. THANK YOU!

[Anonymous]

Getting a hotel room at that age is problematic. I think (?) you have to be over 25 to get a room. Or, a parent has to sign for the liability. I would not be willing to sign for a bunch of kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could always offer to pay for an alternative trip.

...except I really can't. One, I can't really afford it, and two, it seems to be more about hanging with this particular group of friends (who are pretty solid, but still).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting a hotel room at that age is problematic. I think (?) you have to be over 25 to get a room. Or, a parent has to sign for the liability. I would not be willing to sign for a bunch of kids.

OP here. Yeah, me neither. As you can imagine, I have a lot of follow-up questions.

[Anonymous]

Great time to plan a really enticing family trip.

[Anonymous]

I did it as a high schooler in MoCo. We definitely drank but otherwise it was fairly tame.

[Anonymous]

Here's a recent thread on this you may find helpful: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/850973.page

Both my kids went, and nothing terrible happened in their houses, but we did hear some horror stories. In addition to the "no swimming at night" and some of the other good advice you've already gotten, I'd add "Please don't get a tattoo, drink or be clearly intoxicated in public, or argue with any police officers."

The veteran parents in our kids' beach houses all recommended renting a place a block or so away from the beach/main drag.

[Anonymous]

Meant to add to the above that we had two meetings prior to beach week, the first with parents to make sure everyone was on the same page, and the second with the boys after the presentation (at Walter Johnson in our case) from the local beach town police who went through do's and don'ts of Beach Week. In addition to setting expectations, we made sure they knew they'd be responsible for thoroughly cleaning the rental so we could get our deposits back.