Parents of the HS Class of 2026

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
3650

Looking for some input from this collective gang of Internet parent minds on this:

Before D26 heads off to college 13 months from now, she needs bunion surgery on both feet. Podiatrist we’ve seen for a consultation said recovery period is 6-8 wk. Patient must keep all weight off the surgically-repaired foot during that recovery period. Podiatrist also said that people our age tend to need the full 8 wk of recovery, but patients D26’s age are closer to 6 wk.

D26 works 16 hr/wk on weekends at Walmart. So 8 hr 2x/wk on her feet. Total amount of “off your feet” time between the 2 surgeries will be 16 weeks (so, like, 4 months).

According to Walmart’s company policy re: FMLA, you must have worked for min of 12 months there and 1250 hours in order to be eligible for their FMLA and it covers up to 12 wk. D26 will not have the requisite min. # of hours for this by the time surgery #1 happens.

Here’s the tentative plan for latter half of D26’s senior year:

  • 2/6 - end of Trimester 2. Seniors are on their senior trip to Disneyland 2/5-2/7.
  • wk of 2/9 or 2/16 - foot surgery #1
  • wk of 2/16 to 4/5 - 8 wk recovery from surgery #1
  • 5/14 - high school graduation day
  • 5/17-5/26 - D26 & my sister go on graduation trip to England & Italy (the cool aunt is paying for this! :slight_smile: )
  • 5/20 - D24’s last day of spring semester @ college in TX, so have to move her out of dorm, put stuff in storage and all that jazz
  • wk of 6/1 - D26’s 18th birthday + likely week of my niece’s high school graduation in San Diego area
  • wk of 6/8 (hopefully) - surgery # 2
  • wk of 6/8 - wk of 7/27 - recovery from surgery #2
  • wk of 8/10 - hopefully will be able to do a short family trip somewhere before…
  • 8/19-8/23 - move D26 into her freshman dorm + move D24 into her junior yr housing

This basically has D26 with maybe a single 6-week stretch in April/1st half of May in which she’d be able to work.

Husband insists that she can apply for FMLA/disability and that Walmart will put her in an alternate job which would allow her to basically sit the entire shift (like a Walmart greeter in a wheelchair) or a job that would allow her to roll around on one of those knee scooters for an 8 hr shift.

never mind the fact, of course, that putting half of your weight on your knee for an 8 hr shift and spending probably half of that time putting ALL of your weight on your good leg will be pretty uncomfortable…all for $16/hr.

D26’s thought process is that she’d like to leave Walmart on good terms and she thinks it would be a wiser choice to put in her 2 wk notice 2 weeks before surgery #1…in the hopes that if she wanted to work at a Walmart down the road in college somewhere, that would be an option. She’s concerned that if she goes down this whole “2 8-wk periods off” thing, that it’ll kind of put a black mark on her employee record, make it harder to be rehired later, etc.

I am inclined to agree with her.

And based on her employee status, she’s not eligible for protected FMLA time off anyway.

She does want to do SOMETHING during those 16 wk of surgical recovery, is thinking of doing some online courses or stuff like that so she’s not just sitting around watching TV for a few months before college starts.

H, meanwhile, thinks that her quitting the Walmart job will “totally screw her over” for future employment anywhere for a part time job.

What would you do/recommend if your kid was in this situation?

3651

Hoping I can just dump my stress here -instead of on my kid! So we just got an email from the high school saying they have switched her counselor to some new person she hasn’t worked with at all. My daughter has a really close relationship with her previous high school counselor and her previous counselor knows her really well.
Given that counselors have to write a letter to support college applications, we had already set up a tentative date to meet and discuss that letter with her previous counselor. I really DON’T want her ‘new’ counselor writing that letter. My daughter has done some really unusual things in her high school career much of that with the help of her previous counselor. Switching now is just NOT good.
I think this never even occurred to the high school that it would upset anyone because 95+% of the kids go to the local state schools and don’t need a high school letter from their counselor. But it’s stressing me out - a lot.

I’m going to have my daughter write to her previous counselor to see if she can 1) still write that letter or BETTER 2) keep my daughter under her ‘student list’.

The triggering part of this is that I had the same thing happen to me in High School. Senior year they decided to switch my counselor and all he could say in that counselor letter to colleges was my IQ. I’m not joking --and worse yet – I don’t have a particularly rock high IQ -it’s fine but it’s basic smart if you know what I mean.

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3652

I think your daughter asking the previous counselor to write the LOR is a great idea and that’s what I would be suggesting to my kid if she were in this situation. The worst thing the counseling dept will say is no. But if you don’t ask, then it’s a definite no.

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3653

I think leaving the Walmart job when she wants to leave it is fine. I would prioritize her healing.

My son also had bunion surgery in high school. Technically, he was able to heal within the 6wk timeframe your D’s doctor mentioned, but it took him a bit longer to be fully functional as far as staying active at school all day. He also tried that knee scooter thing and it didn’t work for him at all. I would allow extra time for her to fully heal and not throw extra stress into the mix. That’s a lot of complex stuff she already has on her schedule with school and trips and surgeries.

Also about quitting a job… the summer before college, my son signed up to be a (paid) camp counselor all summer. He went off to the job and lasted two weeks before he started getting panic attacks from the stress (it turned out that the work environment at camp was pretty terrible). He ended up having to quit the job and they had to find another counselor to take over for him. He was terrified it would be a black mark on his work record forever. It turned out to be no issue at all. He has been working campus jobs at college since then, and everything is fine.

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3654

And as a back up plan, if ‘previous counselor’ says no, then have your daughter prepare a ‘brag sheet’ for when she meets with New Counselor. Basically a resume of what she’s done, extracurriculars, etc. & include a list of the schools she’s planning on applying to, why she’s targeting those schools to apply to, why she’s picked the major she has, stuff like that.

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3655

I don’t have insight on the rest of the questions but D19 can tell you that this is absolutely not true!!

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3656

C26’s counselor is leaving the school, but sent out a letter to all rising seniors that she counsels to say she would work with the new counselor on their letters of recommendation. Maybe you could ask for something like this?

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3657

Talk to HR/the supervisor. FMLA is what Walmart is required to do. It’s not all that they have to do. Is it possible they can just keep her in the system, but not have any hours? That’s what we do with our interns that intend to come back the next summer. That way you don’t have to go through all of the onboarding stuff. I know one local girl worked at Walmart through high school, and comes back in the summers. I don’t know if she keeps quitting and gets rehired or not.

Paranoid me would prefer she not do anything at Walmart for those two recovery periods. It’d be too easy to do too much, and I’d worry about screwing up the recovery process.

And if D just wants to quit, I’d let her!

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3658

My H tends to be mega-focused on work/employment. He’s kind of a person with a 1-track mind about it a lot of the time. He actually wanted D26 to be working 20+ hr/wk during the school year last year in 11th grade…when she had 7 high school classes (6 of which were APs). Um, no. Even with 16 hr/wk and her course load, she was, in her words, “barely holding it together stress-wise” most of the school year.

Besides, the 10-day trip with Cool Aunt is going to be walking-intensive, so there’s that to consider.

Side note: I kind of half expect that D26 will need new shoes when this is all said and done because her feet will be a tad longer than prior to the surgeries!

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3659

Thank you! I’m 99% sure the old counselor will be happy to write her a letter. They get along really well. I just don’t know the ‘ruffled feathers’ it might create with the new one – especially if the colleges for some crazy reason decide to call the school. I don’t want them to think she ‘went around’ the system or something.

3660

For the parent with the kid employed at Walmart… it’s no big deal at all if she quits! I mean think about her resume – in a year, she won’t even be putting that job on there. It certainly won’t have any long term consequences. Of course, it’s always best to leave on good standing but the turnover is quite high at places like Walmart and Target. If she leaves on good terms, she might just be able to get hired back on without any issues.

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3661

So they had the kids do the o*net interest finder this morning, and C26’s came up with… architect as one of the main options! Bit of confirmation bias maybe -I never really know how well these things work.

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3662

we are in the SAME EXACT SITUATION. I was personally going to reach out to the guidance office. I have been a “Squeaky wheel” many times for both kids. It amazes me how schools make what they consider to be meaningless decisions based on the fact that most kids just fall in line. Yet these small changes are big deals to the students that have planned appropriately for their unique situations. I’d love to know how it works out for you.

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3663

Let me know how it works for you too! Fingers crossed for both of us! This guidance counselor was just SO instrumental in my daughter’s unusual high school path. I want her to be part of the final leg too!

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3664

Have you considered having her do one bunion surgery this year and once the summer she is home from college before sophomore year? My SIL had hers done and had a very long recovery and used the knee scooter and said it was. a lot rougher than she expected (she is in great physical shape). Just wondering if you split them maybe she only loses the 8 weeks this year and then 8 weeks the following summer. I agree with others that quitting is the way to go. I feel like FMLA is more like if she were planning on staying with them for the long term like for the next several years. Just my .02

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3665

We are in the same situation except that the former counselor was not super close to D26. But now she will have a brand new one who is also new to the school so we are very upset about the situation. And guidance is not letting her switch to the one who her brother had who actually knows her :frowning: Anyway, I hope it all works out for your daughter.

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3666

Thought about that. Total cost of the 2 surgeries is way less, due to insurance deductibles and all that, if the 2 are done in the same calendar year.

3667

D26 wrote her Common App essay today! I came home from a day at the beach and she was excited to tell me she started it and wanted my feedback. It is pretty good and I think once she starts editing and moving things around d she will have a nice piece of writing. I am so relieved she finally wrote something. And she even said to me “Once I started writing I couldn’t stop. I wish I hadn’t waited so long”. Yup, mom knows what she’s talking about sometimes, LOL.

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3668

Ah yes, the deductible- forgot about that aspect.

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3669

I’m paging @Knowsstuff about the bunion timeline as this is his line of work.

I would have zero hesitation about having your D resign from Walmart. No way will that limit her future employment.

My only $.02 is to have a contingency plan if things don’t go as plan with the recovery. My mom had bunion surgery when she was pretty young - one foot went great. The second gave her trouble for a very long time.

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