School vacation week: blessing or curse?

Posted on 02 16, 2007 under Master Debaters by wahoodad |

schoolvacationboysIt’s the heart of winter here in New England and don’t look now, but here comes another one.  Not a nasty snowstorm, but a week-long school vacation for the kids.  There are two ways parents view this week.

For some families, it’s just what the doctor ordered:  a chance to take a break from our crazy, hectic day-to-day schedules and to spend time with the kids.  Perhaps you stay around the house playing board games and doing crafts.  Maybe you take day trips to museums or visit your local movie theater to see a new flick.  If you’re really lucky and have the vacation time and extra scratch to swing it, maybe you jet off to warmer climes to trade snow and slush for surf and sand.  

For other parents, the schools might as well write “Hell Week” on its monthly calendar.  If both parents work, you may have to burn vacation time that you’d rather save for the summer months.  If you don’t take days off from work, you’ve got to find someone to watch your kids.  If you take time off, you’ve got to entertain your kids from morning until bedtime for nine straight days, which can be a challenge.  Any kid-friendly venue is mobbed.  “The Bridge to Terabithia” is sold out; Plaster Fun Time (or the kids’ ceramics place in your zip code) looks like a Who concert; and the lines at Chuck E. Cheese lead you to think they’re giving away tickets for Green Monster seats to a Red Sox-Yankees series.   And don’t forget one of the most oft-whined phrases of the week: “I’m sooooooooo bored!”   You end up counting the days like a San Quentin inmate at the end of his sentence.

Love it or hate it, school vacation week is either here or right around the corner.   Give us your take on it:

School vacation week: blessing or curse?

This is the latest installment in our Master Debaters Question of the Week Series. There are some topics that seem to fall into the consensus category: drunk driving is bad, guns kill people, Transformers are better than GoBots. But that only covers less than 1% of the decisions you and your spouse make towards the upbringing of your kids. The majority of issues tend to fall more in the gray area.

Here at Noodad.com, we take pride in delivering important advice for dads. But we realize that some of our advice is subjective. The collected readership surely has things to add and unique perspectives to contribute.

So where do you weigh in?

 

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    Kids have to learn sometime that parents need a little downtime through the day... but lest face it, if you cant take the week off to be with your kid, then you probably have bigger problems to worry about. I admit that the little terrors can be a trial sometimes, especially if they aren\'t feeling well, but you get that even when they are at school. You aren\'t the kids personal entertainment unit...
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    This reminds me of a conversation I had with my brother sometime in the last few months. The short version. It comes up during the conversation that he and his wife are staying up kinda late. I ask why and I get the standard, by the time they are fed, bathed and put to bed there is no \"me/us\" time. Then he asks me, when am I suppose to? (have me time) I told him after you get them out of college and start them on their own path you should start so see some free time in your schedule.

    Suck it up, stop whining.

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