I wouldn’t worry too much and I know several professional men who take off as much as they can during ski season to teach - giving them free skiing, etc. not a bad life really!
I’d let his girlfriend deal with it!
@Fishnlines29 Ah but “professional men” means they have careers already-- THAT we would not have a problem with at all. GET YOUR CAREER.
haha, maybe, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they started out like your son! He’s young 
He has tons of years head of him to start a career. Right now…he doesn’t have a family, children, wife, mortgage…obligations. If he wants to be a ski bum at his expense…let it go! He is an adult. Love him for,what he is doing…not what you wish he would be doing.
@thumper1 I have a man (my age) that works for me that took the ski bum path; and yes he eventually got his degree and he eventually got a career but not much of one – he is at the level of a 3rd or 4th year out of college student, perpetually
Sometimes I think we rush young men into grown up life too quickly. They really aren’t mature yet and many would do better living hand to mouth a few years doing physically active stuff before settling down to desk jobs.
I sowed my wild oats by taking a gap year before college and another one before grad school. (For the second one I lived in a camper van and photographed fire houses all over the country - one of the best experiences of my life.)
As a parent, yes, I’d be a bit irritated, but I don’t think there’s much you can do except make it clear what you will or won’t offer after graduation if he doesn’t have a job lined up.
@mathmom I know you are right-- he does however like living high on the hog - like he wants us to go there for graduation, stay overnight, fly his sister from Missouri and go to a fancy pants restaurant. It will cost us a couple grand! All so he can be a ski bum???
@toomanyteens But your son will HAVE his undergrad degree.
I’m sorry but I don’t think you should link your willingness to celebrate his graduation with what he does AFTER graduation.
Of course, it’s your choice, and you can decide not to celebrate his undergrad graduation at all. But my bet is you were planning to go, and being his sister, and take him to a nice restaurant to celebrate.
Do,that…regardless of his post college choice. Sorry…but it now sounds like you want to sort of hold him hostage to do things YOUR way…or you won’t even celebrate his graduation as you would otherwise have done.
THAT he will 
Biased here, as I am a skiier. But I have 2 friends that were ski bums after college. One is now a retired physician (he worked in ski patrol for a while) and the other was a teacher (also now retired, was in insurance for a while before teaching) who used to take the students on the trips to the slopes on the weekends. There is also a third person is a relative-- was a ski bum, bought one condo at a well known ski location when he was a ski bum and built up a very large, very successful multi city condo rental business. So, its not all bad!
BTW, none of the wives of those 3 guys skiied!!
Sounds to me like he needs to go be a ski bum and get this out of his system. It may take a few years (or many). I think his GF is foolish…really, really foolish to follow him somewhere when he doesn’t even have a job there yet. At his age, I think you need to step back and keep your mouths shut. I also would not give him a dime. He’s on his own and let him figure it out.
OP, this would make me totally crazy, too…but there’s really nothing you can do to change the behavior. That being said, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with you calmly sharing – once — your feelings and concerns. You are worried this lead of a great job will dissolve. You are disappointed he is gone so much. You are embarassed that he isn’t thinking more about a real career. You are angry that he is spoiling what should be a joyous time with what seems to be irresponsible behavior. Moms have feelings too. Just also be clear that you understand these are his choices to make.
This is just the hardest thing. I still constantly repeat “his choices, his life , mom didn’t like all my choices either”. It really takes practice to distance yourself from decisions and behaviors, to “unparent” as it were. There’s a lot of transition as students launch, and it’s okay if it doesn’t always go smoothly or feel great. It gets better, but I’m not sure it ever gets easy.
While I agree that the mom can express her feelings, I’m not sure I would,used the terminology you put forth.
Embarrassed? Why? Because she can’t brag about his new wonderful job/career?
Angry because he is irresponsible? I don’t see this as irresponsible as long as HE is assuming the financial end of it. It’s his life, not hers.
Worried a great job will dissolve? Sorry, but he may end up with a BETTER situation if he leverages some work with his skiing. The relative I referenced upstream did two years of working in Colorado at ski areas. He then applied to grad schools in engineering…and got a fully funded spot at a nice flagship university. it wasn’t like skiing was a dead end thing.
Parents are under no obligation to celebrate a graduation at a fancy restaurant. You can make his favorite dinner at home and bake a nice cake; invite a few friends or his nursery school teacher who has always taken an interest in him.
I cannot imagine feeling pressured to spend money if you don’t feel like it or it’s not in the budget for whatever reason. When I graduated from college I was thrilled my parents came (my siblings were a plane ride away at the time and so they did not) and a few friends and I put together a simple “reception” afterwards of finger foods and desserts to thank our parents for their love and support before everyone loaded the cars or headed for the airport.
Don’t mix up your issues about his not having a job with anything else, i.e. spending money to fly his sister in for graduation. If you can’t afford it you don’t do it. If you can afford it and want to spend the money- then do it. But uncouple his graduation from your ambivalence about everything else or you will drive yourself nuts.
What if his friends are doing a trip to Europe before they all start their jobs in July? Are you going to feel pressured to fund that? There’s all kinds of crazy stuff people do. You do you. Your son either needs a job, needs to find a place to live where they won’t charge him rent, or move home after graduation. period. Now he can figure out the details.
If you are really in a generous mood, you can offer him the mattress/bedroom furniture in his room to cut his costs of setting up housekeeping. Or not.
^ @bossom - was that response perhaps meant for another thread?
What’s funny is we feel bad if we are disappointed in something our kids do, but they have no problem expressing their disappointment in us:)
If I had a daughter (I don’t) and she was working as a pole dancer, I might be embarassed. Having a child who decided to take a post grad gap year to work/play at a ski resort- what the embarrassment?
Has OP’s son actually stated he plans to live a ski bum life upon graduation? Not that I see anything wrong with that for a few years but the post just indicates he wants to spend his college breaks skiing and hasn’t pinned down a job yet. To me, that’s 2 different things. Maybe he’s comfortable with the idea of working at his current employer post graduation. Maybe he’ll pin something down between now and May/June. It is only February.