I don’t know anyone besides non-US countries that allow people to take vacations for that long. But yes, that’s a long time for teens, esp. bc summers become busy with ECs.

My 15 yo still loves travel & visiting family. But he also loves summer swim team, and needs to be around for marching band camp 3 weeks before school starts. So we travel for about 2 weeks per summer. Even when the kids were younger, we never traveled more than 2-3 weeks per summer (except in 2020, when there no activities/sports anyway).

Anonymous wrote:Depends on the kid and the travel, I think! We typically go away for about 4 weeks and always have done and my kids, currently 14 and 12, love it. They spend the rest of the summer at sleep away camps or seeing friends at home so they get a good mix. They really enjoy the travel we do though

I have 13 and 15 year olds. One loves to travel and one hates it. It makes it hard to plan.

We are Asian American and know Asian families who will go visit their home countries for the entire summer. Moms do not work.

Depends on the kid and the travel, I think! We typically go away for about 4 weeks and always have done and my kids, currently 14 and 12, love it. They spend the rest of the summer at sleep away camps or seeing friends at home so they get a good mix. They really enjoy the travel we do though

Ever since my kid was 14 he needed to be around most of the summer if he wanted to play his high school sport. There is a lot of summer stuff and though they understand people take vacations and jobs, they expect kids show up for as much as they can.

He also wants to work.

We take a normal vacation or two. A week here, a long weekend there.

My 13 yo loves travel and visiting family, but between my work schedule and a couple of random specialty camps, it does get tricky to get away for a long stretch of time during thecsummer. You might be better off doing multiple short vacations. Like all things with parenting, this stage won't last forever.

Anonymous wrote:We don't do this, but my DD is a junior and one of her close friends goes back to their home country every summer for basically the entire summer. Doing anything else isn't an option, so the friend doesn't even complain about it and likes seeing the family there.

FWIW, if your DC is going to play a fall sport, practices start at the beginning of August in high school.

It can be a tricky balancing act but ultimately up to you as the parent. And everyone's priorities are different, not every kid is into comp sports etc. One of my kids would have tapped out of family trips at age 8 if it were their choice; my other loves to go everywhere they can with family. My best friend and her family go back to their home country every summer for six weeks; they really prioritized maintaining those relationships and that culture since they've lived in the US for 20 years now. Her youngest daughter is heading off to college this fall and for the past couple of years has found herself a summer job there (dual citizen). Her older kids go for a couple of weeks and come back "home" to the US, but that was when they were in college or just out. Maybe that's an eventual option for you, assuming you stay in once place vs. relocating now and then?

Anonymous wrote:OP, (and a couple of DPs) how do you manage 6-7 weeks of summer travel? I don't know anyone where both parents can take that much time off.

My teen still likes to travel with us, but we don't go anywhere more than 2 weeks. Frankly, *I* wouldn't be happy traveling for more than a couple of weeks in one stretch during the summer.

The families I know who do this don’t take the entire time off. They can work remotely. Also, in some cases one spouse is a teacher.

A 6-7 week vacation is highly unusual, you must know that. It’s unlikely that others here also take that long of trips and would be able to comment on when their kids stopped Wanting to take these massive times away from friends, sports, activities, etc..

Anonymous wrote:OP, (and a couple of DPs) how do you manage 6-7 weeks of summer travel? I don't know anyone where both parents can take that much time off.

My teen still likes to travel with us, but we don't go anywhere more than 2 weeks. Frankly, *I* wouldn't be happy traveling for more than a couple of weeks in one stretch during the summer.

IME, the mom doesn’t work and the dad only goes for part.