11 ms·

Why would you take your kids on a vacation during school? There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer.

MattGaiser 3y ago
Price. If you can travel outside of Dec 20-Jan10th and summer, you can pay maybe half. I have an annual grand trip around the world every year I do off season and I pay less for it in points or cash (mix depends on the places) than friends do to go to Hawaii for a week at Christmas.
- vlunkr 3y ago
  Also, lots of travel is based around life events. I can’t control the fact that funerals and weddings can happen at any time of year.
  - williamcotton 3y ago
    We’re going to two in-law weddings this year and missing a single day of school. Fly in, fly out. Funerals are bereavement leave from school so you don’t need to worry. I feel like 90% of midwesterners would be agreeing with me…
    - bombcar 3y ago
      It can entirely depend on your family/friend circle. For me and mine, In-n-Out is expected, weddings are happening in the locality of one of the families, many are day trips. Other people's family and friends will have multiple destination weddings, etc. Still suspect it's not a major component, kids can only have so many grandparents after all.
    - vundercind 3y ago
      Is there a regional component to this? Some of the “meh, missing two weeks a year for vacations isn’t a big deal” attitudes in this thread are very surprising to me, also as a midwesterner.
  - mattw2121 3y ago
    You can control if you are going...
    - vlunkr 3y ago
      Lol. Yes I suppose.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  What about just piling in the van and driving somewhere? That doesn’t cost more in the summer. Is the expectation that a family takes a 2 week luxury vacation every year?
  - chucksta 3y ago
    Driving in the summer costs more; Historically, retail gasoline prices tend to gradually rise in the spring and peak in late summer when people drive more frequently. Gasoline prices are generally lower in winter months. >https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/gasoline-prices-explained&ved=2ahUKEwiw9ujeyJmFAxVgkYkEHXu_D0MQFnoECBAQAw&usg=AOvVaw1tipZ5-BiZxGlq98ddbGLN https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=8997844...
  - MattGaiser 3y ago
    > Is the expectation that a family takes a 2 week luxury vacation every year? Only at a certain level of upper-middle-class affluence, but for them probably. But even one-week cruises are much cheaper off-season.
  - ptero 3y ago
    > What about just piling in the van and driving somewhere? What about schools not sticking their nose too far out into the parts of life that they should not control? Like where and when we take our kids on vacations. If my kids get good grades and catch up on any missed homework the school should not get spun up about them missing some days. Turning schools into a mild version of prisons is not good for anyone -- kids, parents or the society. My 2c.
    - vasilipupkin 3y ago
      you can't teach very well if 20% of the class is absent, it just creates an absurd situation for the teachers it's not that hard, if you commit to going to school, then just try to go and do vacations during school holidays otherwise, just home school
      - 3y ago
danpalmer 3y ago
Not sure why you're being downvoted. Education is important, missing a week can set a student back by a long way. Holidays are fun and if you have the resources they are certainly worth doing, but not at the cost of keeping up with a child's education. If you can't afford the holiday at the prices when schools are off, maybe you can't afford the holiday! There are plenty of affordable holidays always available and kids care much less about luxuries than adults do.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  I know why I am being downvoted: I am questioning the entitlements of the average tech worker.
- bnralt 3y ago
  > Education is important, missing a week can set a student back by a long way. It will set some back, it won’t set others back at all. Telling a kid who can keep up or who is ahead of the class that they can’t take a vacation because another kid couldn’t keep up if they took a vacation is bizarre. It’s like saying that someone who’s ahead of where the class is needs to go to summer school because a kid in the class who’s behind needs to take summer school. Why should we use the lowest performers as the baseline, and tell higher performers that they aren’t allowed to do things they’re fully capable of doing?
  - kiliancs 3y ago
    I agree. Our kids are very much ahead, in part because when we travel, they learn a lot. They seen new places, new ways of doing things, learn history, apply their math and other acquired knowledge, they often learn things ahead of time just because they interact with other adults, they get to use free time to apply their knowledge and interests creatively. And with the right timing, they get to see their relatives far away without it draining our savings, which makes them happy, which is not only important, but makes them better students as well.
  - nytesky 3y ago
    If your kids can miss a week of school and not be impacted, you should investigate better schools.
trgn 3y ago
My gut agrees with you, but then we'll be keeping our young kids out of preschool to go see the eclipse. So much for principles lol.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  We’re in luck in central Texas as they’ve canceled most school for the eclipse!
  - trgn 3y ago
    that's awesome! we have to drive about 2 hours to path of totality.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- ilc 3y ago
  To be fair, you are talking about a rare event, that is educational and honestly damn cool. The science teacher at the school probably wishes they could do it.
- vundercind 3y ago
  Last chance for decades without going to another continent. I’ll likely be dead before I can see another. My kids were too young to remember the last one, some chance they’ll never see another. We’re going, too—first time we’ve taken them out for something other than illness or a doctor’s appointment or something.
vrc 3y ago
I remember when I was younger, people with international family often would take 3-4 week trips to visit. That was because it was so expensive and painful to go, and there were so many people to visit when you went, and infrastructure there wasn't great at "popping over" for day visits to each of these places. Plus, it was often a once in two-four year visit to see an entire side (or all) of your family. So these kids would just pop out of school for this extended period. Longest I remember was almost 2 months. Usually the parents worked out a deal with the school and brought a bunch of work to be done on the trip, with an exam or makeups when they returned. I was one of these kids, and it sucked. But it was possible with the right support structure. I think when people abscond with no thought to the continued education, that's a huge problem.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  Yup, I am a first generation immigrant and we traveled to see distant family in the summer. We also didn’t have a Nintendo or cable TV, because you know, trade-offs… one of which was rarely education.
chucksta 3y ago
Regional holidays, weather, seasonal events, chances for better experiences, cost, unexpected life events.. there are a couple
tejohnso 3y ago
> There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer. When everyone else is doing the same thing. If you do it at a different time you could benefit from reduced costs and reduced traffic. You can also provide your child with a more rewarding and engaging experience than the drudgery and frustrating inefficiency of the typical school pedagogy.
- ajmurmann 3y ago
  Even without that summer is a terrible time to travel to many destinations. IMO much of Europe and southeast Asia is way too hot at that time. Mid to Late Spring and early Fall are much better.
pavel_lishin 3y ago
Because those breaks don't line up with things like the solar eclipse. Because those breaks don't line up with other cousins' breaks. Because those breaks don't line up with great-grandma's 95th birthday, and she lives a full day's journey away. Because those breaks don't line up with your work schedule, or your partner's work schedule. Because my child is excelling academically, and I absolutely don't think that she'll get as much value out of being in school on Thursday & Friday as she will visiting her relatives in a foreign country for a long weekend.
- vidanay 3y ago
  Hammer, meet nail. As my child's parent, it is my duty to be aware of their educational performance, needs, and shortcomings. Based on all that info, I have no problem deciding to take them out of school for two days to go trout fishing with grandpa, or to view the eclipse with grandma.
- kube-system 3y ago
  All of those situations existed in decades past. Why do parents think that school doesn't provide as much value as they used to?
  - bombcar 3y ago
    People got pulled from class for vacations all the time when I was a kid. It wasn't super common, but it was common enough that there was a standard procedure around it (basically you'd get the classwork/homework that you'd be missing and be expected to present it upon return). I think a bigger part now is that schools are somewhat more overloaded, so missing class puts you "out of sync" and there's nothing to help you catch back up. When I was young the parents were expected to do that: I don't know how common it is now.
    - vundercind 3y ago
      There’s a serious “butts in seats = cash” focus from admin, now. I’m not sure if funding arrangements used (80s and 90s? Pre-nclb? I dunno) to be different.
aaomidi 3y ago
There are cultural events that don’t follow the US holiday schedule. For example, Nowruz.
andy99 3y ago
Why would you prioritize making your kids sit in school over taking them and doing something fun like a vacation, given the option? My first thought reading the headline was that more people are realizing the irrelevance of school and work, and prioritizing other things.
- bathtub365 3y ago
  How will people make money to be able to afford to do those things?
  - vidanay 3y ago
    How does having more life experiences preclude someone from earning money? I'd go so far as to suggest that a more rounded "real-world" education improves their chances of making money. We need to stop thinking of "education" as a monolithic school concept that produces worker bees through rote memorization and repetition.
  - criddell 3y ago
    How different do you think your life would be today if your parents pulled you out of 4th grade for a week in February to go skiing or to Disney or to see cousins?
- usea 3y ago
  Because school is important and not at all irrelevant.
  - seneca 3y ago
    Education is important, not school. So long as school is a means to receive education it is important. A lot of people don't think it is anymore.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - xboxnolifes 3y ago
Jcampuzano2 3y ago
In my elementary schooling my parents would somewhat regularly (once a year, sometimes more) take a week or two vacation that didn't align with breaks, since sometimes things like family events, or good opportunities don't align with school. But my parents did it because they knew I wasn't really missing much. I and a good many others in my classes were WAY ahead of the curriculum already, and basically sitting bored in class all day. I remember my parents literally asked my teachers to give me more advanced homework because I would constantly say I learned basically nothing or that days would go by wasted reviewing things I had already mastered. So they were confident that I wasn't really missing much from being out even for a week or two at a time. I don't know if this is standard practice nowadays, but I know my parents also requested from the teacher that weeks worth of coursework so I could do them even while on vacation. I could usually finish a weeks worth of coursework within like an hour or two of sitting down, and I didn't even consider myself a particularly gifted student compared to some.
georgeburdell 3y ago
When I was growing up, my parents (government workers) had to request time off up to a year in advance, and they couldn’t always get a summer slot. We often vacationed in the Fall
albrewer 3y ago
Because flying anywhere during those few short breaks is about 3-5x the cost vs. traveling at some other time. I'd rather fly to Europe for $400 per person vs. $2200 per person; it's the difference between going and not going.
asielen 3y ago
I think the answers you are getting to your question are reflective of someone we are seeing across many aspects of society. The division between three "haves" and the "have nots". If course taking a kid out of school for once in a life time events should be okay, even applauded. And children who are excelling should be allowed to take that trip to Europe during school. They will learn more there than in a class room. BUT, those excuses hinge in good academics and support at home. I heard someone say once that at the end of the day, everyone is home schooled. If students are not raised in an environment that values education, it really doesn't matter if they are going to school everyday. In my opinion as a dad of two young kids, attendance is a symptom not a cause. But penalizing attendance issues is a lot easier that fixing the core issues which I think are mostly economic and mental health related. I and many of my peers grew up with one stay at home parent who volunteered at my school occasionally and engaged with my teachers. Now my wife and I both have to work to afford the lifestyle I had growing up. My kids are going to have to be in after school programs which are basically just babysitting even if I am in a position to afford good mentoring. Cell phones and social media are also causing issues with older and younger students. Peer pressure is at an all time high and academic pressure is not far behind. We are putting so much stress on these kids, when they are just kids. They need to explore their world, get their hands dirty and be curious. Not take yet another standardized test. American society is not kind to children. Back to it being a haves and haves not issues. As someone with a sizable household income. I absolutely afford to supplement my children's education with museum memberships and trips to see events like the eclipse and frankly also mental health support. I am lucky to have a job that I can take time off anytime I want. But this is the bubble I am in of tech workers. The vast majority of Americans cannot do that. This divide is just going to continue to widen the gap.

MattGaiser 3y ago

Price. If you can travel outside of Dec 20-Jan10th and summer, you can pay maybe half. I have an annual grand trip around the world every year I do off season and I pay less for it in points or cash (mix depends on the places) than friends do to go to Hawaii for a week at Christmas.

vlunkr 3y ago
Also, lots of travel is based around life events. I can’t control the fact that funerals and weddings can happen at any time of year.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  We’re going to two in-law weddings this year and missing a single day of school. Fly in, fly out. Funerals are bereavement leave from school so you don’t need to worry. I feel like 90% of midwesterners would be agreeing with me…
  - bombcar 3y ago
    It can entirely depend on your family/friend circle. For me and mine, In-n-Out is expected, weddings are happening in the locality of one of the families, many are day trips. Other people's family and friends will have multiple destination weddings, etc. Still suspect it's not a major component, kids can only have so many grandparents after all.
  - vundercind 3y ago
    Is there a regional component to this? Some of the “meh, missing two weeks a year for vacations isn’t a big deal” attitudes in this thread are very surprising to me, also as a midwesterner.
- mattw2121 3y ago
  You can control if you are going...
  - vlunkr 3y ago
    Lol. Yes I suppose.
williamcotton 3y ago
What about just piling in the van and driving somewhere? That doesn’t cost more in the summer. Is the expectation that a family takes a 2 week luxury vacation every year?
- chucksta 3y ago
  Driving in the summer costs more; Historically, retail gasoline prices tend to gradually rise in the spring and peak in late summer when people drive more frequently. Gasoline prices are generally lower in winter months. >https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/gasoline-prices-explained&ved=2ahUKEwiw9ujeyJmFAxVgkYkEHXu_D0MQFnoECBAQAw&usg=AOvVaw1tipZ5-BiZxGlq98ddbGLN https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=8997844...
- MattGaiser 3y ago
  > Is the expectation that a family takes a 2 week luxury vacation every year? Only at a certain level of upper-middle-class affluence, but for them probably. But even one-week cruises are much cheaper off-season.
- ptero 3y ago
  > What about just piling in the van and driving somewhere? What about schools not sticking their nose too far out into the parts of life that they should not control? Like where and when we take our kids on vacations. If my kids get good grades and catch up on any missed homework the school should not get spun up about them missing some days. Turning schools into a mild version of prisons is not good for anyone -- kids, parents or the society. My 2c.
  - vasilipupkin 3y ago
    you can't teach very well if 20% of the class is absent, it just creates an absurd situation for the teachers it's not that hard, if you commit to going to school, then just try to go and do vacations during school holidays otherwise, just home school
    - 3y ago

danpalmer 3y ago

Not sure why you're being downvoted. Education is important, missing a week can set a student back by a long way. Holidays are fun and if you have the resources they are certainly worth doing, but not at the cost of keeping up with a child's education. If you can't afford the holiday at the prices when schools are off, maybe you can't afford the holiday! There are plenty of affordable holidays always available and kids care much less about luxuries than adults do.

williamcotton 3y ago
I know why I am being downvoted: I am questioning the entitlements of the average tech worker.
bnralt 3y ago
> Education is important, missing a week can set a student back by a long way. It will set some back, it won’t set others back at all. Telling a kid who can keep up or who is ahead of the class that they can’t take a vacation because another kid couldn’t keep up if they took a vacation is bizarre. It’s like saying that someone who’s ahead of where the class is needs to go to summer school because a kid in the class who’s behind needs to take summer school. Why should we use the lowest performers as the baseline, and tell higher performers that they aren’t allowed to do things they’re fully capable of doing?
- kiliancs 3y ago
  I agree. Our kids are very much ahead, in part because when we travel, they learn a lot. They seen new places, new ways of doing things, learn history, apply their math and other acquired knowledge, they often learn things ahead of time just because they interact with other adults, they get to use free time to apply their knowledge and interests creatively. And with the right timing, they get to see their relatives far away without it draining our savings, which makes them happy, which is not only important, but makes them better students as well.
- nytesky 3y ago
  If your kids can miss a week of school and not be impacted, you should investigate better schools.

trgn 3y ago

My gut agrees with you, but then we'll be keeping our young kids out of preschool to go see the eclipse. So much for principles lol.

williamcotton 3y ago
We’re in luck in central Texas as they’ve canceled most school for the eclipse!
- trgn 3y ago
  that's awesome! we have to drive about 2 hours to path of totality.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
ilc 3y ago
To be fair, you are talking about a rare event, that is educational and honestly damn cool. The science teacher at the school probably wishes they could do it.
vundercind 3y ago
Last chance for decades without going to another continent. I’ll likely be dead before I can see another. My kids were too young to remember the last one, some chance they’ll never see another. We’re going, too—first time we’ve taken them out for something other than illness or a doctor’s appointment or something.

vrc 3y ago

I remember when I was younger, people with international family often would take 3-4 week trips to visit. That was because it was so expensive and painful to go, and there were so many people to visit when you went, and infrastructure there wasn't great at "popping over" for day visits to each of these places. Plus, it was often a once in two-four year visit to see an entire side (or all) of your family. So these kids would just pop out of school for this extended period. Longest I remember was almost 2 months. Usually the parents worked out a deal with the school and brought a bunch of work to be done on the trip, with an exam or makeups when they returned. I was one of these kids, and it sucked. But it was possible with the right support structure. I think when people abscond with no thought to the continued education, that's a huge problem.

williamcotton 3y ago
Yup, I am a first generation immigrant and we traveled to see distant family in the summer. We also didn’t have a Nintendo or cable TV, because you know, trade-offs… one of which was rarely education.

chucksta 3y ago

Regional holidays, weather, seasonal events, chances for better experiences, cost, unexpected life events.. there are a couple

tejohnso 3y ago

> There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer. When everyone else is doing the same thing. If you do it at a different time you could benefit from reduced costs and reduced traffic. You can also provide your child with a more rewarding and engaging experience than the drudgery and frustrating inefficiency of the typical school pedagogy.

ajmurmann 3y ago
Even without that summer is a terrible time to travel to many destinations. IMO much of Europe and southeast Asia is way too hot at that time. Mid to Late Spring and early Fall are much better.

pavel_lishin 3y ago

Because those breaks don't line up with things like the solar eclipse. Because those breaks don't line up with other cousins' breaks. Because those breaks don't line up with great-grandma's 95th birthday, and she lives a full day's journey away. Because those breaks don't line up with your work schedule, or your partner's work schedule. Because my child is excelling academically, and I absolutely don't think that she'll get as much value out of being in school on Thursday & Friday as she will visiting her relatives in a foreign country for a long weekend.

vidanay 3y ago
Hammer, meet nail. As my child's parent, it is my duty to be aware of their educational performance, needs, and shortcomings. Based on all that info, I have no problem deciding to take them out of school for two days to go trout fishing with grandpa, or to view the eclipse with grandma.
kube-system 3y ago
All of those situations existed in decades past. Why do parents think that school doesn't provide as much value as they used to?
- bombcar 3y ago
  People got pulled from class for vacations all the time when I was a kid. It wasn't super common, but it was common enough that there was a standard procedure around it (basically you'd get the classwork/homework that you'd be missing and be expected to present it upon return). I think a bigger part now is that schools are somewhat more overloaded, so missing class puts you "out of sync" and there's nothing to help you catch back up. When I was young the parents were expected to do that: I don't know how common it is now.
  - vundercind 3y ago
    There’s a serious “butts in seats = cash” focus from admin, now. I’m not sure if funding arrangements used (80s and 90s? Pre-nclb? I dunno) to be different.

aaomidi 3y ago

There are cultural events that don’t follow the US holiday schedule. For example, Nowruz.

andy99 3y ago

Why would you prioritize making your kids sit in school over taking them and doing something fun like a vacation, given the option? My first thought reading the headline was that more people are realizing the irrelevance of school and work, and prioritizing other things.

bathtub365 3y ago
How will people make money to be able to afford to do those things?
- vidanay 3y ago
  How does having more life experiences preclude someone from earning money? I'd go so far as to suggest that a more rounded "real-world" education improves their chances of making money. We need to stop thinking of "education" as a monolithic school concept that produces worker bees through rote memorization and repetition.
- criddell 3y ago
  How different do you think your life would be today if your parents pulled you out of 4th grade for a week in February to go skiing or to Disney or to see cousins?
usea 3y ago
Because school is important and not at all irrelevant.
- seneca 3y ago
  Education is important, not school. So long as school is a means to receive education it is important. A lot of people don't think it is anymore.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- xboxnolifes 3y ago

Jcampuzano2 3y ago

In my elementary schooling my parents would somewhat regularly (once a year, sometimes more) take a week or two vacation that didn't align with breaks, since sometimes things like family events, or good opportunities don't align with school. But my parents did it because they knew I wasn't really missing much. I and a good many others in my classes were WAY ahead of the curriculum already, and basically sitting bored in class all day. I remember my parents literally asked my teachers to give me more advanced homework because I would constantly say I learned basically nothing or that days would go by wasted reviewing things I had already mastered. So they were confident that I wasn't really missing much from being out even for a week or two at a time. I don't know if this is standard practice nowadays, but I know my parents also requested from the teacher that weeks worth of coursework so I could do them even while on vacation. I could usually finish a weeks worth of coursework within like an hour or two of sitting down, and I didn't even consider myself a particularly gifted student compared to some.

georgeburdell 3y ago

When I was growing up, my parents (government workers) had to request time off up to a year in advance, and they couldn’t always get a summer slot. We often vacationed in the Fall

albrewer 3y ago

Because flying anywhere during those few short breaks is about 3-5x the cost vs. traveling at some other time. I'd rather fly to Europe for $400 per person vs. $2200 per person; it's the difference between going and not going.

asielen 3y ago

I think the answers you are getting to your question are reflective of someone we are seeing across many aspects of society. The division between three "haves" and the "have nots". If course taking a kid out of school for once in a life time events should be okay, even applauded. And children who are excelling should be allowed to take that trip to Europe during school. They will learn more there than in a class room. BUT, those excuses hinge in good academics and support at home. I heard someone say once that at the end of the day, everyone is home schooled. If students are not raised in an environment that values education, it really doesn't matter if they are going to school everyday. In my opinion as a dad of two young kids, attendance is a symptom not a cause. But penalizing attendance issues is a lot easier that fixing the core issues which I think are mostly economic and mental health related. I and many of my peers grew up with one stay at home parent who volunteered at my school occasionally and engaged with my teachers. Now my wife and I both have to work to afford the lifestyle I had growing up. My kids are going to have to be in after school programs which are basically just babysitting even if I am in a position to afford good mentoring. Cell phones and social media are also causing issues with older and younger students. Peer pressure is at an all time high and academic pressure is not far behind. We are putting so much stress on these kids, when they are just kids. They need to explore their world, get their hands dirty and be curious. Not take yet another standardized test. American society is not kind to children. Back to it being a haves and haves not issues. As someone with a sizable household income. I absolutely afford to supplement my children's education with museum memberships and trips to see events like the eclipse and frankly also mental health support. I am lucky to have a job that I can take time off anytime I want. But this is the bubble I am in of tech workers. The vast majority of Americans cannot do that. This divide is just going to continue to widen the gap.