Just realizing that at this time next year I will have a freshman who will still be on break while her younger brother is long back in high school. As the average college break looks to be at least four weeks, and many times even longer, I’m curious to know what your freshman is doing. Did he or she snag an internship (or are they young for this?), are they babysitting and doing after-school runs for neighborhood kids, or are they sleeping in and binging on Netflix? Not judging, I really want to know! I remember always doing temp work on my long breaks (punctuated by sojourns to Grandma’s in Florida).
I’m also curious to learn how former stay-at-home parents who may have gone back to work after their child went off to college deal with these long breaks. Do you take a lot of time off to hang with them, or leave them to their own devices?
Last year, when my D was a freshman, she just caught up with friends who were also home on break, then just hung out at home, doing some writing and playing the piano, after her friends went back to school. (She has almost the entire month of January off.) She really needed her break. This year, she is a research assistant for a French professor, so spends a few hours each day doing that. The rest of the time, I put her to work doing housework!
My son only had about three weeks off. I don’t know too many who have a month off. He spent a couple of days sleeping off all the stress of finals, then we had Christmas and traveled a day to see family. We took a long weekend away just our family. He spent the rest of the time catching up with HS friends, shopping for needed clothes and new sneakers, went bowling, saw a HS teacher or two. It didn’t feel long enough to me!
He thought he might try to work at his summer retail job but didn’t really have time. I went about my business and let him sleep til 1 in the afternoon and I went to bed before he got home some nights.
He also helped with a couple of chores around the house and did some laundry.
My D is now a college senior. She have never been one to be at home much. Classes started back up for her this past Monday, though she did have 4 weeks off. She spent a week in Chicago with her aunts, then went away for a weekend to a middle school friend’s wedding. We live just 30 miles from one of our state universities, so she typically has spent some time there over Christmas breaks with high school friends that are students there…
Since freshman D has been booked every summer with internships and studies she enjoyed her four week break at home. She met with her high school friends several times It was the first real break she has had in years (long overdue) where she didn’t have homework or applications to work on. She plans to work over the summer again. During the break she continued her volunteer job once a week too. She met with her high school teachers and took the time to read Harry Potter books again. I am happy knowing she is going back to school well rested and refreshed. Once school starts things will be hectic for her again. Break flew by quickly.
My D is a freshman, she was home for 4.5 weeks. She’d hoped to work a lot at her former summer job, but they didn’t have any shifts for her. She she was hired by a neighbor to do some house painting, but that was probably only about 25 hours or so. Other than that she mostly sat around and watched Netflix! She was pretty bored and longing to go back to school pretty much as soon as Christmas was over. I’m pretty sure she’ll try to have an internship, or at least a definite job, lined up next winter!
My daughter who attended a school with semesters spent some of her holiday break with family and friends and then went back to her school for Paideia.( optional, no credit courses and events)
Daughter who was on qtrs, didn’t have much time off after the holidays, but had to get back to school after New Years.
Travel. The first year we had a family trip somewhere exotic, then S went with his dad, who is semi retired, to ski. This year the two of them went to see the last bastion of communism before it gets overrun.
We will have two in college next year, so I figure we will take another family trip. Beyond that will depend on how long the breaks are.
If we didn’t take a trip, I think I’d encourage a seasonal job or seasonal volunteer work. he kids do go crazy with all that time at home.
I’m a freshman - my break was 6 weeks. I’m self studying Calculus for next semester and getting 13+ hours of sleep a day to compensate for all the hours of lost sleep from the Fall '14.
…
I’m also binge watching Netflix. Who knew the Real Housewives could be so addicting?
eat my home cooked meals everyday
sleep for as long as they wanted to
wake up
do whatever they wanted ( talk, see friends, laundry, one has a part time job, etc etc )
eat my home cooked meals again
repeat
for 3 weeks…
& we had a Thanksgiving style turkey dinner for no reason
My Freshmen is back at school. He came home the Thursday before Christmas. I think it was exactly the right amount of time off. 3 weeks.
My son worked 40+ hours a week. Started in the early mornings and was usually done by 2 or 4pm. Then came home had a break, had dinner and then showered and was out the door meeting friends. He would come home about 2pm and then wake up with a few hours of sleep to go off to his job. I told him if he kept that routine up he would get sick from the lack of sleep. But he continued his routine most days and caught up on his sleep on his days off. He was able to go snow boarding 3 times during his break, as well. He went clothing shopping and picked up some toiletries and supplys for school. Caught up dental and eye appointments.
When he got a chance he squeezed us in between. LOL!!!
For college freshman, done with finals before they come home for their winter break, it may be the first time they don’t have to study or do homework over the holidays. Freshman year, my daughter felt this was her first real break in years (those HS teachers were great at assigning time consuming projects to do over the week long HS winter break.) This year my daughter did not do much over break - was sick for about half of it. I agree with about poster about eating their favorite foods, staying up late, sleeping in until late, and getting to catch up with their HS friends.
Mine slept, texted like crazy with her college friends, had a few get togethers with high school friends, read, worked on an art project, and did stuff on the computer. That was freshman year. Same this last break as a sophomore, except she also did some internship applications for the summer (yay! second interview for one next week!), and baked in the middle of the night. I would come down and find fresh cheddar & rosemary scones, blueberry muffins, etc. It was for the best she went back to school last week, my waistbands were getting tight…
D2 was home for 4-5 weeks. She got her resume and cover letter(s) ready for summer internship. She is lucky she got to know her summer employer pretty well that she can work there whenever she wanted. D2 was their summer babysitter when she was a freshman. She didn’t really enjoy it very much, but the mom really liked her. It so happened the mom’s family owned a publishing company in NYC, she asked D2 to work at the publishing company whenever D2 had time and do some babysitting in a pinch.
I thought we were going to have a lot of time, but between work, holidays and friends, time just flew by. We have a family vacation planned for this Mar, looking forward to have some down time with D1&D2.
DD’s break is about 4 weeks. She’s been sleeping, catching up with friends, binge-watching TV, and hanging out on Tumblr. She did have a couple of productive days. By prior arrangement, she prepared a presentation on logical fallacies that she’d learned about in her philosophy class and gave it to some honors English and debate classes at her old high school.
Our son has been sleeping late & going out with friends right after dinner with us. His girlfriend came over a couple times & his room is a disaster all over again. He and I are going to spend a few hrs together this weekend while wifey and daughter go on a field trip to NYC. I’m bringing him back to school Monday afternoon, so only working 1/2 day. His school is close. He volunteers at his college radio station and to his surprise was asked to tape (or do live) many shows during his break. So he’s been commuting to Boston a few times each week all throughout the break. I felt bad for him initially but now hoping his staying in touch with the “campus” so-to-speak, he will have an easier re-adjustment when does go back. His girlfriend had to go back right after new year’s because she started a paid internship that runs the rest of the school year. He went in for an overnight w/her after recording one of his shows. That’s about it. No evidence of any re-occurrence of the binge drinking disaster he had at Thanksgiving. Oh, he also had his annual physical and a dental checkup. He has 1 cavity and has to come back for the filling, probably during spring break. No Cancun for him! hahaha. He also applied and got hired for a short term summer teacher (assistant?) at a camp his girlfriend worked at. But it’s good because he will be teaching in his field.
I have just about 6 weeks off. December 18- Jan 26. This year I couldn’t do much as I was in a cast but in the past I’ve worked full time. Luckily for me my high school employer always has room for me I save right under 1000$
