<p>So, would you allow or have you allowed your kid to go on a spring break trip to an all-inclusive resort (includes alcoholic drinks) without parent chaperones?</p>
<p>Or, what about if there are a few parents going so that the parent/adult ratio is about 1/10?</p>
<p>Most kids are 18, but some are 17. The drinking age is 18 (Bahamas).</p>
<p>This is common around here; what about your high school?</p>
<p>Comments, opinions?</p>
<p>no</p>
<p>I wouldn’t care if there were some parents around. A NOLA student fell off a cruise ship last year during a cruise where graduates and parents were on board. Certainly there was drinking involved, but the body was never recovered (the last I heard).</p>
<p>No-----never would have I permitted that. I remember the young lady who was killed during a break. </p>
<p>I would not permit my first year freshman daughter to go on spring break. Look on You-tube and type in spring break. You might rethink ever considering it.</p>
<p>Nope. (10 char)</p>
<p>That was where we drew the line, even though it was a pretty loud discussion.</p>
<p>No way. Period.</p>
<p>Not a chance.</p>
<p>
</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you considering letting your son go on such a trip?</p></li>
<li><p>If so, will you be one of the parents accompanying the kids?</p></li>
<li><p>Is the main attraction of this location the drinking age?</p></li>
<li><p>Have you ever heard of Natalee Holloway?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It’s a shame a bunch of rich Westchester County kids can’t find something to do that would benefit others. Why not start a new tradition of some kind of service trip?</p>
<p>I said no, but the issue caused a whole lot of heat around the house for a few weeks.</p>
<p>One argument for is that these kids will soon be on their own in college anyway, so parents have to start trusting them.
One argument against is that the resort environment is just too much temptation. It lacks the “supervision” end structure that a college campus offers.</p>
<p>The travel agent who is making the arrangements candidly told me that the 17-year olds find a way around the drinking age restriction. I guess everyone knows the kids are there for a big drinking party, although I’m sure not all of them overindulge.</p>
<p>I’m guestimating that almost half the kids around here go. I’m sincerely interested in hearing from parents who permit this.</p>
<p>Good for you for saying no. </p>
<p>Of course the whole point of the trip is to go to a big drinking party. Even if some of the kids don’t overindulge, there would probably be a lot of pressure to do so. </p>
<p>Is the point of the trip to be a warm-up for the college drinking scene? Sounds like it. </p>
<p>Are any of the kids paying their own money? How much does the trip cost?</p>
<p>No flippin’ way! They make those tropical drinks and shots way too tasty down there. I know our kids are going to drink, but I would worry about alcohol poisoning.</p>
<p>Two years ago we were in Cancun during spring break. More than once we ran into a groups of mothers who were “chaperoning” a group of high school kids. Lets just say that the kids were no where to be found and the moms were flying high.</p>
<p>I suppose I would feel differently if it were the parents of my son’s best friends.</p>
<p>From the State Dept’s web site on the Bahamas:</p>
<p>The U.S. Embassy has received numerous reports of sexual assaults, including assaults against teen-age girls. Most assaults have been perpetrated against intoxicated young women, some of whom had reportedly been drugged. To minimize the potential for sexual assault, the Embassy recommends that young women stay in groups, consume alcohol in moderation or not at all, ride only in licensed taxis, and not accept rides or drinks from strangers. </p>
<p>The legal age in The Bahamas for consumption of alcoholic beverages is 18. Parents should be aware, however, that minimum age requirements are not strongly enforced. It is easy for teenagers to obtain alcoholic beverages and underage drinking is prevalent. Many of the arrests, accidents and violent crimes suffered by U.S. citizens in the Bahamas involve alcohol. Engaging in high-risk behavior such as excessive consumption of alcohol can ultimately be dangerous because it greatly increases the vulnerability of an individual to opportunistic crime.</p>
<p>Deja - was that snarky comment about “rich westchester county kids” necessary? OP is asking for our experience and thoughts, not judgements. Thankfully this isn’t a trend that has caught on around here although “beach week” is bad enough (at least we have a 21 drinking age to hang our parental hats on). It seems to me that the parents who allow this are the same parents that allow kids to drink in their homes and take the keys so that “they are safe”. They don’t take into consideration the affect of alcohol on the developing adolescent brain, the increased likelihood of engaging in risky behavior and the very real threat of alcohol poisoning.</p>
<p>*The travel agent who is making the arrangements candidly told me that the 17-year olds find a way around the drinking age restriction. *</p>
<p>Drinking ages in other countries are often not enforced. It will be one constant margaritaville.</p>
<p>*More than once we ran into a groups of mothers who were “chaperoning” a group of high school kids. Lets just say that the kids were no where to be found and the moms were flying high.
*</p>
<p>Exactly. No way are the kids going to be tethered to the parents.</p>
<p>Absolutely NO. My son is 18 and I honestly don’t think he would have any interest in going.</p>
<p>
No judgment there, eh, 3bysmom? </p>
<p>I do think it’s a shame that a bunch of rich kids couldn’t find something else to do with their (or their parents’) money, like a service trip.</p>
<p>The only kind of spring break trip we considered during senior year was multifamily, and we still didn’t go. In the years since our oldest was a senior (she’s currently 25), nearly every year there has been something that’s gone wrong at some level or another and had the parents swearing they’ll never do that again. </p>
<p>The argument of “they’ll be on their own soon enough” at college is bogus. Might was well say an infant will soon enough walk and talk and then expecting it to happen immediately. Just because they are soon to go through the gate, does not mean we need to open it and usher them through it! (and too… somehow the thought of paying for my kid to party for a week in the Bahamas just doesn’t sit right).</p>
<p>My son told me a group from our high school was thinking about a trip to Germany and what my feelings about it might be. I told him that I probably wouldn’t let him go, because I think these group trips don’t deliver as much as traveling on your own and I think the potential for getting into trouble is greater. (I have a friends whose son seriously jeopardized his senior year when caught drinking in France.) The idea of a resort trip really bothers me - it’s not even pretending to educational. I’d definitely nix that.</p>
<p>we have heard of the “senior trip” all over the tri-state area, not just in Westchester (LI, NJ as well)…so glad that both of my daughters’ high schools are not involved; there is NO way that either of them would be permitted to go…</p>
<p>on another note, there seems to be a large contingent of these same parents who have no problem with their kids (under 18 even) hanging out and drinking at casinos all over the Caribbean during break even when the parents are around so why wouldn’t they be perfectly fine with their kids going away without supervision for spring break?</p>
<p>I am still a prude/old-fashioned…if my kids are going anywhere as teenagers, they are going with me…later on, a different story…I will take their friends with us if they would like, but, no, they are not going alone for awhile…</p>
<p>Im guessing that the OP is a student- I think that most parents already know what the reply would be
;)</p>
<p>My daughter went on a extended trip senior year over a break- ( they went to Ghana)
This break was part of a class- that had worked all year to prepare and raise money, not to mention there were teachers as chaperones as well as other adults.</p>
<p>Freshman year in college could be mistaken for a wild party in some circles, I don’t see any reason to start in high school.</p>