Who pays for 18-21yr old?

[bearswife]

My son is 19 and in college and works p/t making min wage (just enough to pay for gas for college). We are paying for his cruise, air, excursion, etc (but not paying for gambling)! I want my son to come because there won't be many more vacations together. Plus, I don't want to leave him home alone for a week and make my house into a PARTY CENTER! My friends are bringing there 19 yr old and making him pay. Just curious, do others do what I do or make their kids come up with the money or pay them back some how later?

[Bravo]

I would pay for everything, life is to short and I would want our son with us. As for gambling, you have to be 21.

[Mydnite]

I have teenagers, well 2 are 20 and 21, and still at University, working part time. Until they are working full time I assume I am paying. They provide their own spending money, but I will pay for holidays and relevant excursions. It would be different if they were not in education still.

[bearswife]

I would pay for everything, life is to short and I would want our son with us. As for gambling, you have to be 21.

 

Going on NCL Western Caribbean. He can gamble at age 18:( . That I refuse to contribute towards.

[Bankergrl]

Bearswife,

 

I also have my 21 year old son coming with us. He is in his 3rd year of college and there is no way he would be able to pay his own way. We are also paying cruise, air and excursions. He will be on his own also if he wants to do any gambling. I also have our 16 year old DD and 10 year old DS. My oldest is a good student and I don't want to leave him out. The last cruise we went on he couldn't go because it was over Easter Break and his finals were the next week. He was very adult about us and told us to go and have a good time. This time we are going on his mid winter break.

[farmergirl56]

We are bringing our 20 and 23 college kids along and paying for everything -except the gambling if the older one choses to. I figure we don't have many years of traveling together or that they will want to with us. Their payment is eating with us and sharing some of their cruise time with us. They will be making their way in the big world soon enough and will have four years of out-of-state college payments to make soon.

[George W. Bush]

As a 25 year old man who loves his parents dearly and assumes the same of your children . . . I can say that when I was in my early 20's if I had to pay for a vacation it wouldn't be with my parents.

[momofmeg]

Normally we pay for our daughter as her income level is not that much yet-although she is paying her own way for our next cruise together, but she will be rooming with pals, not us.

 

In fact if she was not going on this cruise- we would not even be going - she wanted us to go - this cruise (Carnival Glory) was her choice not ours. Now we did offer to pay her way on a Millie cruise in April, she wasn't interested.

 

 

Now she is 23, a few years ago, she may have been embarrased to be with us, but now that all of us are adults, our relationship has changed. We are actually friends. It is nice when they get past those teen years and we parents actually survive!

[janetz]

My dd is paying 500.00 towards her cruise fare of 750.00. We will pay for the excursions and she will bring her own spending money. :)

[morriscats]

My kids are grown with kids of their own - if they want to cruise with us and could not quite afford it we would help them as we did on Carnival and Disney. I love having "family cruises" and spending time with all of them. Maybe when we are really old they will be taking us?? Hope so.

[RoofingPrincess]

Just got back from sharing a cabin on Vision of the Seas with my DS (22) and his g/f (20)

I paid for everything for him; he's not working (had some medical issues) and we haven't vacationed together for a couple of years, so I decided to let him come with me.

She's working and going to community college AND she paid her way for the trip (airfare and the 3d person rate - I prepaid her tips).

I kept the total cost low by choosing an inside cabin and finding a great airfare on Southwest.

One excursion (not thru the ship) was $36 and sounded like so much fun that I offered to pay if they wanted to come along with our group. They did. We all had a blast (but it turned out to be an expensive excursion when DS lost his Rx sunglasses when he was wading in the surf and got knocked down by a wave!)

I just wish her ambition was contagious and he'd catch it! :D

[letscruisegd]

My 19 year old is in college and is working part time. Until she graduates and is working a full time job I'll continue to pay for our vacations together. She does however have her own spending money. I'll pay for the trip but she has to take care of any extras she wants.

[cherylandtk]

It depends on how badly you want him to join you on the trip. And how empty his wallet is; meaning how much do you have to offer for him to say "Yes".

[bearswife]

It depends on how badly you want him to join you on the trip. And how empty his wallet is; meaning how much do you have to offer for him to say "Yes".

 

His wallet, LOL..empty..What I'm offering? A free cruise. Its just that when my husband found out our friend is making their kid pay it put a bug in his ear. He said Im not teaching him by paying for him. The kid can't pay, he dont have the money. Same old story, "make him be a man and find extra work" blah blah blah! :D

[jp2001]

I have no kids but I think I would pay for the cruise and the excursions they would do with me (or with their father). I wouldn't pay if they chose to do another excursion on their own and I would settle their own onboard account and they would be responsible for it, and also for other expenses they want to make ashore.

[AZPam]

We've done just about all the options! On our cruise this year, it was the first time that we asked our kids, 20 & 22, to pay their own way. Both are at university full time and working part time jobs. We were really hoping they would learn to save for something they wanted, and they did. We did pay for all the excursions on this trip, but they paid their room, tips and everything else. The year before we paid for the cruise, but they paid for excursions.

 

I feel confident that my kids know the value of a dollar and have a very good idea of what the real world is going to be like once they are out on their own.

[gail811]

Fortunately for us (and our sons!) we are at a point in our life when we are in a better position to pay for them. Truth is, we enjoy vacationing with our children and their families! When they are in college, we pay for everything, because we can, and because we want to. Our 17 year old told us last year that you are only spoiled if you don't APPRECIATE what you have. Knowing they appreciate what we do for them makes the experience that much better for us all. Life is short and our position as parents is as "memory makers".

[imnance]

I want my son to come because there won't be many more vacations together. Plus, I don't want to leave him home alone for a week

 

IMO, the above statements mean you pay.;)

[notentirelynormal]

Both my kids are struggling even though they are married. My DD has 2 little ones, my DS is going to school full time and then some and not able to work yet. I want my kids to come with us and we all have a great time together so I pay. I pay for their cruise, shore excursions and flight. Their on board expenses are their own. This next cruise, which has turned out to be really expensive might be the last one they get for awhile though. We are doing the NZ/Australia cruise and I'm paying for the air, pre and post hotels, transportation and excursions. We have travelled together with family and friends since they were little and as long as I can afford to take them I will. They appreciate every thing they get and know the value of a dollar - they just don't have any to spare. For us its worth having them along, especially since we get to play with the grandkids now too :). This will be their 14th cruise.

[bububr]

so that we could come along, however the 'Extras' were our responsibility, and by that I also mean made us MORE responsible.

 

Unless there was something we really had to have that we didn't have the cash for, everything beyond what was included in the fare, was our own responsibility. We always had summer jobs, etc.. for pocket money and we learned to save up for our vacations.

 

IMHO unless its a 'big' family trip, paying and helping out your kids financially only enables them to become poor money handlers. I have seen this happen not only with family, but with friends. Sometimes being a god parent is letting their kids sink and learn how to swim instead of being their lifeboat to fall back on.

 

Dave:eek:

[GottaLuvCruising]

We have paid for our adult children to cruise with us several times (in same stateroom as well as separate rooms). We invite them and cover their cruise fare, but they are responsible for all on board and ashore charges.

[beth4652]

We have paid for our children to cruise with us as long as they were still in school and making good grades. Fortunately, that has always been the case. They are now 40, 38, 26, 25, 22, 22, and 21. We still like to vacation together, whether it be land or sea. We have so many priceless memories that I wouldn't trade for all the money we've spent. As long as we can, we will.

[LHP]

I would pay for everything, life is to short and I would want our son with us. As for gambling, you have to be 21.

 

On Carnival, you can gamble at 18.

[LHP]

Our oldest is 19 and we still pay for everything.

 

He has a full academic 4 year scholarship (chemical engineering) and not only pays for everything in college...but also puts money in his savings account for gas, personal expenses etc. So his college is not costing us one penny.

 

He also already has a co-op lined up for after his Junior year (he is a soph).

 

 

As long as he doesn't mess that up....we will pay for his cruises!!

 

Btw, since he got all the scholarships...we are using his college fund to cruise on!!! So in a way...he is paying for all of us!!

[bonniemari]

I paid for my DS when I took him when he was 22. I paid for the cruise and his expenses while on board. He is not a drinker so no charges for alcohol but those smoothies he liked weren't cheap. He paid for his own gambling. He's not a big gambler but he did manage to win a few hundred dollars on the first night of the cruise.

 

Being the good son he is he offered to pay his part of the ship charges but since I invited him (cause at the time my DH was burnt out on cruising and I needed a cruise fix) I paid for it all.

 

Now that he is 29 and seemingly a professional student, albeit with a decent job he would pay his own way. Of course me being "mom" I would probably insist on paying for the cruise itself but he would insist on paying his own onboard account.

 

ETA-we also gave our 2 other adult children and their spouses a cruise for Christmas one year-we paid for the cruise and they were responsible for their accounts while we were on the cruise.