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My husband and I said we would stop pulling our kids out of school for travel once they hit high school. Grades are too important for college. See 5 Tips for Pulling Kids Out of School for Vacation. It’s a controversial subject with parents, for sure.
Well, it’s confession time. We recently pulled our high school junior out of school for two days for a trip. Why?
I blame the pandemic. So many important events have been canceled. Like many others, our kids have missed out on Homecoming dances, class parties, field trips, concerts, etc. Missing those events, along with the never-ending passage of time, has changed our perspective. Time and experiences have become more precious.
Last year, we made plans for my husband and son to travel to the Laver Cup tennis competition in Boston. They planned to fly out on a Friday night and fly back on Sunday night so they wouldn’t miss school. With these schedule restraints, they would miss part of the event.
The event was postponed due to Covid. Then earlier this year, it was re-scheduled for the same venue in Boston. We noticed that the dates miraculously did not conflict with any of our son’s school tennis matches. The following year, the event will take place in London, which is not convenient for a weekend trip. So, we decided to re-purchase tickets and re-book the trip.
But this time, we arranged their flights so that they would see the entire event. My son would have to miss two days of school. Based on the way his school has a block schedule, missing two days means missing only one day of each class. My son has matured the last few years, and we determined that he could handle making up the work.
The Laver Cup was last weekend. My son was living his best life there, seeing his hero and U.S. Open Champion Daniil Medvedev play live.
I’m not making big plans to pull him out for a week next year. Making up school work is a bit of a pain.
But in this case, he and I both agree that missing school for this special event was totally worth it. Even though I broke my own rule, circumstances and perspective changes. No regrets. Carpe-diem.
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
We are on the same block schedule and I would have done it too! This was not a “pull my kid out to go to the mall”. This was something important to him. We just pulled out daughter (high school junior) out this past weekend for one day. Her aunt was finally getting married (postponed two times and venue closed once). They live 9 hours away and we didn’t want to miss the rehearsal as my daughter was a bridesmaid. She missed her homecoming dance and a band performance but all of her teachers said “go”. She’s an honors student. I think colleges now more than ever appreciate a work/life balance.
We live 35 minutes North of Boston in New Hampshire. Although, our area is nothing like Boston, I still wanted to wish your son a “welcome to New England”. I hope he had a great time.
@Michelle I can’t think of a better reason than a family wedding to pull your daughter out. I hope you all had a great time! My son enjoyed Boston, although he barely saw anything else besides the tennis matches. 🙂
Don’t worry about school. There is no goodness or honor in it. We send our kids to school to be brainwashed with biased information and to be programmed with a corrupted thought process. Teachers tell our kids they are evil for being white (despite whites being responsible for nearly every technological innovation and comfort in history) and stupid for being Christian. In itself, school has zero moral or cognitive value. Memorizing worthless information for tests, reading and learning literature and math we will never use in life, and writing essays on unnecessary topics is a waste of neural capacity. Intelligence is 100% genetic. Schools actually make intelligent kids dumber as they waste their time on subjects and biased information not pertinent to their specific intellectual strengths and future career interests. Aside from learning language young, basic ABCs, and coding, the only benefit of school is social. If your kids do well socially, school is helpful. If kids hate the socializing at school, school doesn’t even help them for that. Going to college is only useful for a career which requires it. If we are rich, there is no point in college. Sometimes a college degree isn’t worth it if the major is not one that would bring an above average income. There is an opportunity cost to college.
Schools allow a certain amount of unexcused absences. Beyond that (if you don’t have a friendly doctor who will play ball), home schooling is something that is more popular each day. Government doesn’t teach your kids; you do. Even private or catholic school follows the government curriculum and standards, so it’s not much better.
The Laver Cup is a nice event that doesn’t get enough attention in the states. It was nice for Fed to visit the tournament as he recovers.
“Grades are too important for college.”
As someone who doesn’t have an accredited high school diploma (and no official grades), make sure you aren’t overestimating their importance. I’m assuming this is necessary to go straight to a 4-year? That’s something I didn’t do.
@Ian My husband and I have become more loosey-goosey on our self-imposed rules the deeper we get into parenting. For sure, there are many educational paths that don’t require top-notch grades. But in my son’s case, he has his heart set on making a college tennis team, and the colleges he’s looking at are tough to get into. Plus, the higher the grades, the less we will have to pay in tuition due to merit scholarships. But, it seems that missing those two days are not going to hurt his grades this time.
Ah, I see. Didn’t think about the sports issue. I hope he does get scholarships, especially if he goes to a pricey school!