Sending teens away for vacation by themselves

avigayil

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 6:10 pm

I have never heard of this trend until now.

When teens have winter break from high school, the parents send the kids to Florida BY THEMSELVES for the week. The parents cannot get off work and think the kids 'deserve a break'.

Some of the moms in my area took their daughters for the break and saw this and could not believe their eyes. Let me tell, you, it wasn't good. These were frum girls too.

Anyway ever hear of sending kids away by themselves? shock

baseballmom

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 6:12 pm

There was a whole article about this in the Jewish Week...and I know of people who were in Florida as a family who saw the behavior of these teens and were horrified.

baseballmom

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 6:19 pm

greenfire wrote:

teens will do horrifying things right under your nose too!!!

True...but this was incredibly widespread, and with no adult supervision anywahere to be seen. It is different to hang out, and even do some of the stuff alluded to in the jewish Week article etc, when you know you are coming home to parents, who have some level of expectations, adn to be off doing those things totally unsupervised for a week!

gryp

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 6:47 pm

So now there are parents that will actually PAY for their kids to make trouble?
I'm in such shock, I'm laughing.

TzenaRena

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 7:13 pm

I've heard of this, and I just wonder every year, when the midwinter vacation comes up why there is such a thing. It didn't exist in my times. And now elementary school has it too. What usually happens is that right after the midwinter vacation is over, a heavy snowstorm hits and the kids are out of school for another 2-3 days. Rolling Eyes

momto4

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 8:23 pm

ive heard of this too and its fairly common. I myself have never been to florida and seen the kids behavior but I would like to think that some of these teens are responsible enough and do know how to act appropiately even when they're not with their parents.

shanie5

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 8:39 pm

what age are these teens?
its beyond my compehension how a parent can do that. my kids are well behaved and to my mind trustworthy, but im not dumb enuf to send them off anywhere w/o proper supervision.

JMto2

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 9:23 pm

I can not believe a parent would do such a thing with no supervision on the teens. when I was going into 12th grade I went to Israel for a month I had other friends that also went and they stayed by family we got together almost daily but I was under full supervision ther I stayed by a family fiend who watched me like a hawk

greenfire

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 9:49 pm

My teens talk a lot about their friends in EY that their parents think they're going there to school - but they hang out and drink and ........... you don't want to know ... so .......... it happens everywhere unfortunately

chen

Tue, Mar 13 2007, 10:44 pm

Teens on vacation? alone? unsupervised? are their parents crazy, incompetent, or merely stupid? It probably isn't legally considered dereliction of duty, but that's what it is.

as for deserving a vacation--that's why there are skating rinks, museums, zoos, botanical gardens, restaurants, bowling alleys--all within an hour or two of home and none requiring an overnight stay.

Ruchel

Wed, Mar 14 2007, 12:25 pm

chen wrote:

ditto...

amother

Wed, Mar 14 2007, 1:18 pm

as a teen, I went on vacation with my friends alone with no parental supervision all the time.........camping, israel, trips to the beach......I had a blast, was responsible, and turned out just fine. my parents trusted me andi never let them down. they trusted the friends I was with, otherwise they definitely wouldn't have let me go. teenagers are not little kids, you know. you can't shelter them like babies until they are married, or else the chosson is going to wind up with a very naive, boring, sheltered girl who has never been anywhere on her own. doesn't sound too appealing to me.

Ruchel

Wed, Mar 14 2007, 1:39 pm

amother wrote:

or else the chosson is going to wind up with a very naive, boring, sheltered girl who has never been anywhere on her own. doesn't sound too appealing to me.

The first time I went on vacation without parents/family or summer camp supervision was... with my chosson. It was the same for him. It was not a problem for us.

DefyGravity

Wed, Mar 14 2007, 3:09 pm

GR wrote:

So now there are parents that will actually PAY for their kids to make trouble?
I'm in such shock, I'm laughing.

I know! What stupid parents!

Raisin

Wed, Mar 14 2007, 5:55 pm

Quote:

I stayed by a family fiend who watched me like a hawk

That's got to be a freudian slip.

amother

Thu, Mar 15 2007, 1:49 pm

my parents loved and trusted the friends I was with, and that there were absolutely no problems!