I agree with the drunk teenager.

Anonymous wrote:You need to let your kids grow up and make their ownistakes to learn from. You cannot be a helicopter mom when they are off at college eventhough I'm sure many if you will try to. You will just push your kids away. Life us life and it's hard... You have to learn sometime.

You are an idiot and obviously either a teenager or drunk when this was written. Or perhaps both.

You need to let your kids grow up and make their ownistakes to learn from. You cannot be a helicopter mom when they are off at college eventhough I'm sure many if you will try to. You will just push your kids away. Life us life and it's hard... You have to learn sometime.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:D hasn't asked. None of her friends from school are going. She will start her summer job a week after graduation. I wouldn't allow her to go if she asked.

I find this attitude completely bizarre. Your daughter is either already 18 or will be 18 very soon. As many PPs above have pointed out, that means she is an adult. I'm not sure what you mean you wouldn't allow her to go. She can go if she wants, she doesn't need your permission. What would you do if she decided to go, would you kick her out of your house?

Well, sure--IF she's living on her own and paying her own way with money she earns. You're right, in that case she's free to go. But if you mean a recent high school grad who's living at home and depending on her parents to pay for everything? Um, no!

Anonymous wrote:D hasn't asked. None of her friends from school are going. She will start her summer job a week after graduation. I wouldn't allow her to go if she asked.

I find this attitude completely bizarre. Your daughter is either already 18 or will be 18 very soon. As many PPs above have pointed out, that means she is an adult. I'm not sure what you mean you wouldn't allow her to go. She can go if she wants, she doesn't need your permission. What would you do if she decided to go, would you kick her out of your house?

D hasn't asked. None of her friends from school are going. She will start her summer job a week after graduation. I wouldn't allow her to go if she asked.

Anonymous wrote:We didn't. Planned a father-son golf trip so he didn't feel like he was all alone while all his friends were at the beach. DS was not happy but we pretty much said tough.

Drinking, sex and so forth are usually a part of college life. But they aren't the point of college, so hopefully they are side activities to the primary purpose of being there.

They are the point of beach week with no other purpose. Sorry, not something this parent is condoning.

Way to go mom. Thank you for stating this; it helps other more responsible parents to know that we're not the only ones saying NO WAY.

I never went to any kind of beach week when I was in high school at 17, but freshman year in college, I went with 4 girlfriends to the Bahamas for spring break, at age 18. So yeah, it was pretty much the same thing. Booze cuise, partying, wet tshirt contests. I guess less pressure though because we were in college, not high school. Also no one had cars which made it safer.

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in NYC. I find this rite of passage so peculiar. You finish HS and you get a week at the beach with your friends to be drunk, screw around and experiment with drugs? As if you'll never see your friends again?

When we finished HS, a bunch of us had summer jobs to start and one last special summer vacation with our family. My parents took us to London for a week which I really appreciated. I met people all summer long to hang out in cafes, go to Bway shows on cheap tickets and kiss my boyfriend in romantic places like the Empire State Building.

Maybe its a mark of how boring DC is as a city that teens have to go to the beach to to be somewhere "exciting."

Well, yeah, it's more fun to be at the ocean than it is to be in DC in the summer. I am from Southern Maryland and it is definitely boring there. Beach week is pretty freaking fun compared to hanging around Maryland in your parents' house. Also, no, I pretty much didn't see my friends again because I joined the military. We Marylanders are peculiar people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in NYC. I find this rite of passage so peculiar. You finish HS and you get a week at the beach with your friends to be drunk, screw around and experiment with drugs? As if you'll never see your friends again?

When we finished HS, a bunch of us had summer jobs to start and one last special summer vacation with our family. My parents took us to London for a week which I really appreciated. I met people all summer long to hang out in cafes, go to Bway shows on cheap tickets and kiss my boyfriend in romantic places like the Empire State Building.

Maybe its a mark of how boring DC is as a city that teens have to go to the beach to to be somewhere "exciting."

You're trying to change the topic to New York is better than DC. We've already covered that topic ad nauseum. If you prefer NYC to DC, by all means please go back.

Beach week is fun. Wait a minute. Teens in NYC go to the beach. So do those in Boston. What rock did you live under? Or were you emo?

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in NYC. I find this rite of passage so peculiar. You finish HS and you get a week at the beach with your friends to be drunk, screw around and experiment with drugs? As if you'll never see your friends again?

When we finished HS, a bunch of us had summer jobs to start and one last special summer vacation with our family. My parents took us to London for a week which I really appreciated. I met people all summer long to hang out in cafes, go to Bway shows on cheap tickets and kiss my boyfriend in romantic places like the Empire State Building.

Maybe its a mark of how boring DC is as a city that teens have to go to the beach to to be somewhere "exciting."

You're trying to change the topic to New York is better than DC. We've already covered that topic ad nauseum. If you prefer NYC to DC, by all means please go back.

I grew up in NYC. I find this rite of passage so peculiar. You finish HS and you get a week at the beach with your friends to be drunk, screw around and experiment with drugs? As if you'll never see your friends again?

When we finished HS, a bunch of us had summer jobs to start and one last special summer vacation with our family. My parents took us to London for a week which I really appreciated. I met people all summer long to hang out in cafes, go to Bway shows on cheap tickets and kiss my boyfriend in romantic places like the Empire State Building.

Maybe its a mark of how boring DC is as a city that teens have to go to the beach to to be somewhere "exciting."

Anonymous wrote:When I asked to go, my parents pretty much laughed in my face & asked how I was going to pay for it. I think I spent the week at home, getting drunk with my friends in the park instead.

Ha-ha. Sounds like what I plan on telling my DD (she's 4 and we live in VA, so Beach Week probably isn't as much a factor for us, that's more of a MD thing.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Luckily my dd is not interested in beach week. Right now she is looking forward to a breather from her classmates and is excited to be planning her college orientation.

But if she happened to be interested, no, I would not permit her to go to traditional beach week. However, I would be cool renting a large house with another mom, the 2 of us as chaperones and allowing the girls a reasonable amount of freedom.

You sound like the best kind of mom--loving and flexible but not afraid to set some limits--and I'm guessing you have a wonderful daughter!

Really? Because I thought this idea was way worse than the dad's golf trip idea. I can't imagine anything less cool than being at beach week with your mom. I guess you could put the option out there, but I can't imagine anyone would take you up on it, unless it's to a completely different beach where beach weekers won't be. I will probably play this decision by ear, depending on how mature DS is, but if I say no, I would either plan a different fun trip or nothing at all, not try to replicate beach week with my presence.

Not at the same beach, for sure! That thought didn't even cross my mind! I still think it's a great idea (at a different beach).

I am the poster who stated she would offer the alternate beach week, and yes, I was think of a completely different beach. Funny enough, my kid has said if she had time she *WOULD* like to do this. Maybe she just didn't want to hurt my feelings, but I think she was serious as she mentioned her list of boundaries that could not be crossed.


All kids are different, and perhaps many of your 18 year olds *ARE* ready for beach week. However, every year I read articles and reports on how this trip gets out of hand. It just isn't worth the risk IMO. And as I said, it wasn't a battle to fight for us, DD told me that she is not interested in drinking cheap beer or bad wine and turning a beach rental into a flophouse with no idea in the end of with whom she would actually be sharing her surroundings.

PP here who went to Dewey from a DC private - I definitely paid for it myself!