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Glorious perhaps for the parents. Reading some of the comments here, I'm reminded of a story I read about several couples renting a summer house, sending all t
by DoreenMichele 5y ago
Glorious perhaps for the parents.
Reading some of the comments here, I'm reminded of a story I read about several couples renting a summer house, sending all the kids from all the families there for the summer and the parents taking turns spending their vacation there to supervise.
Some outsider was like "Oh, God, spending my two weeks of vacation tending to so many children sounds like a nightmare." And then someone pointed out that for the parents, the vacation was the other six weeks or whatever getting to live like a childless couple.
(Please don't aim your anger at me. I'm on your side here.)
- ido 5y agoI guess it depends on the age of the children, but beyond a certain age wouldn't it be fun to spend a few weeks with a bunch of other kids in a summer home?
- DoreenMichele 5y agoThe kids apparently had a blast. I don't recall the age ranges. I think the only criticism was along the lines of "Well, that's great for the kids. But the poor parents! What in earth were they thinking?!" not realizing that the parents got a different kind of break in addition to doing something wonderful for the children who all got to spend like eight whole weeks at a lake house instead of just two and got to do it with lots of built-in friends to play with, rather than being lonely on an adult vacation away from their friends.
- ido 5y agoSo I’m not sure what exactly are you finding bad about this? Or did I misinterpret your post (specifically about the “anger”, why should describing a positive experience all around elicit anger)?
- DoreenMichele 5y agoI think you probably are misinterpreting something. I'm not saying it's bad. Just that the part that was good for the kids was different from the parts that were good for the parents. People here saying "That sounds glorious" about 50/50 custody arrangements strike me as thinking about it from the point of view of how the parents experience it and not how the children are likely to experience that. Everything I've read suggests that shuffling the kids back and forth like that ends up being distinctly negative for the children in most cases.
- ido 5y agoThanks for explaining! I guess I expected a more tight/direct analogy to the original divorce scenario (kids feeling neglected because their parents left them with other adults in the lake house?)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jefftk 5y agoParents also vary a lot in how they feel about having kids around. Spending a two-week vacation with my kids and their cousins/friends is something that I personally would find really fun! And I know many parents that wouldn't feel that way.