<p>I have a senior and he wants to do the senior week in Ocean City thing. I Know almost nothing about this, or how to plan for it. I THINK I will let him go, but I don’t think I’ll let him take a car.
I’m interested in things like when you need to make reservations/tips/suggested places. I’m also interested in related stories and things to consider. He is pretty responsible and hasn’t done anything to make me think he will go out of control down there, and he has a pretty good peer group, but I know there are no guarantees, and sometimes the “pack mentality” or peer pressure has unexpected consequences.
Thanks in advance</p>
<p>Here is just one approach: These HS seniors can not arrange this without parental help ~ landlords, hotels won’t rent to this age unless a parent signs. Most HS seniors don’t have the money for a vacation either. If parents did nothing - did not impede or promote - it probably wouldn’t happen.</p>
<p>We avoided this issue several years/several kids with this approach. They don’t have any memory that we did anything to prevent them from going, it’s just that their plans fell apart and never came to fruition. That said, one trip did happen (a parent owed the beach house) Only danger (to my knowledge,haha) was my son had a flat tire during the trip. Aside from a little worry, and inconvenience, it could have happened anywhere and was a good learning experience.</p>
<p>Both of my kids had jobs that summer. They just couldn’t manage to schedule beach week. There was no way to get that much time off.</p>
<p>[sarcasm]Too bad.[/sarcasm]</p>
<p>I went my senior year and it was great.</p>
<p>I’m for it. </p>
<p>/unpopular opinion</p>
<p>I will say this again as a resident of a beach resort where senior week takes place (several weeks because of different schools/states) please take your kids on a family vacation instead. We are subjected to rude, drunk young semi adults who have no regard for the residents or their property. Groups of roving kids who have had too much to drink and too much freedom is something we locals dread each year.</p>
<p>^ we should then also ban trips to big cities where I have to deal with absurdly rude kids who are here visiting and being arses</p>
<p>There isnt much call to spend a week @ the Pacific Ocean in June around here, not to make rentals by kids a big draw anyway- but this earlier thread might be helpful.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/700094-beach-week-hs-seniors.html?highlight=beach+week[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/700094-beach-week-hs-seniors.html?highlight=beach+week</a></p>
<p>Are you okay with your son getting drunk for a week straight with his friends? There’s your answer 
</p>
<p>I graduated from high school in MD and didn’t do the beach week thing for many reasons. Partially because I really hate the beach (which is so funny since I live 5 blocks from it now). My friend group was not into that thing either.</p>
<p>Some parent (or several parents) will need to give up their own vacation time to go be on-site with the kids because of the whole renting to kids issue. So do think that one through.</p>
<p>Haha no they won’t.</p>
<p>I took snugapug’s approach with my youngest. She asked if she could go on a beach trip, I said yes, knowing the kids would never get it together. (They didn’t) Then there was going to be a local camping trip (Never happened either).</p>
<p>Oldest D and 3 friends went to Disney World for their grad trip. I was comfortable with that and helped them plan. They flew, used Disney transportation to get around, had no access to alcohol. Disney will rent to 18 year olds.</p>
<p>My youngest & her friends planned a camping trip to a local island.
It looked like it was only going to be two of them after all, but because Im over protective, I suggested that I stay in another site with our dog, just in case.</p>
<p>I don’t know what I was worried about, they were better prepared than I was. ( I had forgotten that no matter how gorgeous the days, the nights can get pretty chilly in October. :o I ended up letting my dog sleep in the car.</p>
<p>The next year D took a gap year in a developing country on the other side of the world. The only thing I helped her arrange was her flight to & from.
But she did end up staying on a beach for a month.</p>
<p>Woo, boy, what a can of worms.</p>
<p>Both of my sons went, both returned unscathed and citation free. My advice consists of one statement:</p>
<p>Do NOT believe a word your child, her friends, or their parents say until you have all had a meeting to hash it all out, and everyone has signed a house rules contract. </p>
<p>Additionally,
Do NOT be the parent who takes responsibility for signing the contracts.
Do NOT be the parent who supplies a car. Once they are there, they don’t need one. (We sent our kids there and back in a hired small bus. The cost wasn’t much split among a big group.)</p>
<p>We had a meeting to discuss house rules and arranged for a police officer to talk about the laws, the court system, citations, DUI, DWI, implications for scholarship loss, and a physician to discuss medical issues. All the kids and most of the parents learned some facts. The scholarship loss implications were especially eye opening for some. (The group had a couple of kids on ROTC scholarships, one headed to a service academy, and several others had large scholarships to lose.)</p>
<p>This isn’t the trend around here, so I never faced this. I have a friend who navigated this with her kids post-prom in a town where “everyone” goes to the beach afterwards. The parents got together to hire a security person for the rented house. Never been so happy with my town as when I heard this. All got home safely, but I just don’t get it. The previous generation of parents would have just said “no”, making it easier on all. My folks always wanted us to have “something to look forward to”, making the denials a bit less harsh.</p>
<p>S1 went to Panema City in 2010 and we all survived. However, he went on a bus with a trip offered through, but not sponsored by, his school. IMHO, removing a vehicle from the equation cuts the possiblites for trouble way down. S2 graduates in the spring and wants to go to Myrtle Beach and I have no problem with it. </p>
<p>Funny story - my brother went to Myrtle Beach when he graduated in '83 and came back with a pierced ear - an extremely big deal at the time, especially in our conservative Catholic household. My dad was so upset about it he bought my brother a car to make him get rid of it!</p>
<p>We should of thought of hiring Mr. T for security.</p>
<p>Two Ds survived Rehoboth, Delaware beach week. The week after HS graduation. Most of the HS in Northern Virginia have overnight “lockdown” events the night of graduation.</p>
<p>
This was my mother’s mantra for everything. If not for my dad’s intervention, I would never have been able to drive, date, wear makeup or do anything else until after I graduated. Having something to look forward to is nice, but OTOH, life is not a dress rehearsal.</p>
<p>@Dudedad - our high schools do to - Project Graduation. S1’s included a silent auction, at which he purchased his own comforter set for college. I volunteered at S2’s school last spring and it was amazing. It was at the local YMCA with a staggering array of food and activities. Most kids don’t leave for Senior Week until after it’s over because they don’t want to miss it.</p>
<p>
This is what gets me. A lot of parents on CC are dead-set against Senior Week trips but have no compunction whatsoever about sending their kids on gap years halfway across the world in some questionable places. Maybe they are doing educational things or helping the needy, but IHMO they can get in as much or more trouble as they can on a week-long trip in the good old USofA …</p>
<p>fbm104- My mother wasn’t quite as broad-based in her use of this phrase… I never liked hearing it anyways, but appreciate it more now. </p>
<p>It just strikes me as ironic that people are simultaneously supporting their kids in going somewhere and hiring security. That said, I hear you about the challenging destinations some kids find themselves pursuing. I guess the perception of educational value may impact some decisions. Would that there was “security” for my college senior’s funded international fellowship in an area of both natural and man-made disasters… No incidences in the end; just like most of the beach weeks. You are right that trouble can find people anywhere and of course, some people are more likely to find it than others.</p>