Am I A Bad Mom

[jennew]

That is absurd that parents let their kids stay home "just cause". We always went to school. If we were sick we had to lay in our beds all day with no tv. Just medicine, chicken soup, orange juice, cough drops, comic books and bed rest. That was it.

 

My kids aren't allowed to play if they stay home from school and then I make them go to school if they say they are bored.

 

I don't mean to be the voice of reason on these boards but kids have to learn responsibility. School is important. Work and responsibility are important. Character is instilled. You are going to have a heck of time later if you don't teach kids early about duty and responsibility. Vacations are a treat. Work, school and obligation are keys to success.

 

 

I wonder if you would be ok working a "job" for 13 years where they dictate when your vacation would be.

 

Just like in real life, you need to make sure your responsibilities are covered before you can take a vacation. If they have their school work done then what is the problem?

 

By the way, when I was sick my mother would move the TV into my room. She brought me food on a tray and frozen treats to bring down my fever. Why punish a kid for getting sick :rolleyes:

[rin1]

I wonder if you would be ok working a "job" for 13 years where they dictate when your vacation would be.

 

*raises hand* I work that job! :p

[Onessa]

. . . kids have to learn responsibility. School is important. Work and responsibility are important. Character is instilled. You are going to have a heck of time later if you don't teach kids early about duty and responsibility. Vacations are a treat. Work, school and obligation are keys to success.

 

Kids need to learn RESPONSIBILITY, not blind adherence to authority. By simply and only following the rules, kids will not learn responsibility, they will become lemmings and allow others to make all of their decisions for them.

 

Letting your child know that you and her teacher have discussed the matter and that because she IS a good student and a hard worker, she can take a few days off school for your family's trip to Hawaii, can actually underscore the value of that hard work. Getting the school work before the trip and letting your child decide when she is going to do the "make up" work teaches her that this is not a "free ride" and keeps the responsibility of getting it done with the child.

 

Watching your child work through all of her math and social studies homework while on an 8+ hour flight to Hawaii (in preference over watching a DVD) underscores that maybe she takes that responsibility seriously. Having your daughter volunteer to put together a Power Point presentation on volcanos pulling from her experiences, pictures, and other information from her trips to California, Washington, Italy and Hawaii for her fourth grade teacher's class (when DD was in Fifth grade) also tells me that just maybe she "lives" the whole hard work and responsibility is important lesson - rather than simply "gets" it.

 

It's not the trip, it's not time in or out of school; it is the attitude of the parents, the teachers, the students and, well, of society; that determines whether any experience a child has is a positive growing experience, a neutral experience, or a negitive stunting experience.

 

As a parent, you evaluate your child, his situation, his needs. Talk to your kid's school. Talk to your kid. Talk to your employer. And use all of this information to make a decision that is right for you and your child.

[IResQU]

Due to my husbands work schedule, we can pretty much only travel during the winter months. This year we will be enjoying 2 family vacations. Yep, THIS bad mom, will be spending quality time with my children! Now the first one is purely a FUN trip. A week in Disney World. I believe that family time is very important, and spending fun, quality time with the family is a valuable life lesson! The 2nd is a cruise. Also fun, but can be quite educational! We have never had a problem with the teachers or schools! BUT we make the childrewn write a report or do some other type of preoject as to what thgey learned while on the cruise. i.e. How are other countries, (mexico, jamaica, belieze...) different coulturely? sp? How is there housing structure different, clothes, food. I make it more educational by having detailed conversations with my children about these things. Yes, I am defending my choice as a parent to vacatiuon during school time, but Would I rather them remember a "good lesson" that week, or great memories as a family? I am not discrediting the teachers time and effort into lessons. But there are some lessons that can be taught outside of the classroom. Now, the are only in grade school, I am sure I will be traveling less and less during school time the older they get. Side Note, after pleading my "case" with the school officials, I have gotten the absenses excused. I am sure the extra projects help!

[mikenhe]

Are you a bad mom?

I have no idea – and I couldn’t base any view on your parental skills just on the fact that you want to take your kids out of school for a few days.

Go for it – they’ll remember the time with you far more than they ever will working their way through one chapter of a book.

The younger the kids then the less they’ll miss. And its not difficult to teach them yourself whilst on the cruise (drinking games, Poker, blackjack etc etc :D).

Seriously a few hours of one to one time is worth way more that time at school.

(dons flame proof suit and stands back)

PS – the fact that you have thought about the pro’s and cons and are weighting them up suggests that you are interesting in doing the right think for your kids. Good on you. That’s what really matters. I still say go for it.

PPS I have to declare that I’m not impartial in this debate. My kids are coming with me on a cruise in 10 days time – not a problem as we homeschool and can adjust for that. Or more to the point we’ll turn it into a learning opportunity in some way.

[ThysFamily]

When my son was in Kindergarten last year he missed 5 days of school for our family trip to Florida. His teacher required him to do a daily travel log (drawing pictures/some "best guess spelling" sentences) and then he had to report to the class when he returned. I told her at the beginning of the school year that he would be out. So she prepared a travel log assignment that incorporated part of the lesson plan she had. Ironically, they were doing marine life and we used part of our trip to go to Sea World. We took lots of pictures to supplement his travel log and he reported to his class about sharks and stingrays.

 

Now, he's in first grade and I informed the teacher during the first week of school that he will be going on a cruise to celebrate his Nonna's 70th birthday. We are going the week before school vacation (Massachusetts has a week off in February) so he will have vacation week to work on his assignments. She indicated that she will also have him do a travel log/journal and will incorporate the lesson plan into it. They will be doing "writer's workshop" in February as well as "early geometry" so we'll have some special projects to do while on the ship for his journal. For Christmas, we will be giving him his own Fisher Price digital camera so he can take pictures for his "book."

 

The attendance policy is pretty stringent at his school but they do make accomodations as long as the teacher is informed at the beginning of the year. After this year, I don't anticipate taking a vacation during the school year. I think as the grades advance it would put him at a big disadvantage to miss any more school beyond sick days.