Reply to Boarding School - Why or Why Not?

Forum Index » Private & Independent Schools

Reply to "Boarding School - Why or Why Not?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]My kids are in college and in high school, and despite all the stress of raising teens, I would never have given up the past few years of having them at home and watching them grow into young adults. Sure, they weren't around the house as much as they were during their childhood years, but that actually made the time with them more precious. We've had some of our best conversations during late night study breaks or driving home after a sports practice or game. If they'd been away at boarding school DH and I would have missed so many opportunities to get to know them as their adult characters and personalities took shape. [/quote]

To be fair, the breaks at boarding schools are much longer than the breaks at public schools, so it's not like you have no time for quality interaction with your kids.[/quote]

I understand that the breaks are longer, but that's not the same thing as seeing your kids on a day-by-day basis.  Spending time with your child at six-week intervals during a period of intense emotional and cognitive development seems less than optimal to me.  You would be missing out on those spontaneous heart-to-heart talks that are a critical part of parenting during the teen years.    
 [/quote]

+1.  My daughter is now in college and my son is closing in on his teen years.  By the teen years, yes they are buys and they probably want to be with their friends more than with you.  But those little day-to-day moments are really what give you insight into their lives.  Whether it's light-hearted private or family jokes, being there to dry tears after a fight with a best friend or heartbreak over a boy, or other big and small moments I don't want to miss them.

I'm a working mom, and we had our kids in daycare when they were small, so I'm not insinuating that all boarding school parents are bad parents.  There are good parents and crappy parents everywhere.  For our family though, I couldn't have imagined my child going through adolescence and the challenges of her teen years far from home.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics