beach week meeting

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A certain high school senior I know said he needed to go to a "beach week meeting" at a friend's house. A beach week* meeting? It was the third one and he had missed the first two. There was a printed agenda, including who was going to make the Costco run.

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* Beach week is when hordes of snoburbia high school seniors go to Bethany Beach the week after graduation, closely followed by the Montgomery County Police, who try to make sure kids lose their college scholarships because of underage drinking.

Comments

[MattF]

The Beach Week PowerPoint presentation template needs to be viewed and approved by the Executive Committee.

[Charlene]

I guess kids don't jump into a car after graduation and just go. Or at least not where you live!

[Dragon Lady]

Didn't allow either son to go to Beach Week and they survived the trauma quite well. It isn't a requirement unless you are part of the "cool" crowd (meaning you drink and hook up a lot). What a farce that parents feel they have to go along with this.

[Doris]

You obviously haven't read local author Susan Coll's book Beach Week (an excerpt was featured in Bethesda Magazine last summer). Beach Week meetings are a must. No way in hell would I allow a child of mine to go to Beach Week.

[Ivyleague Senior]

i hope you parents realize that forbidding your children from doing something is entirely counter productive. For one thing, most of them are 18, theyr'e not kids anymore. Second, you do realize that 3 months after beach week they are going to be completely independent in an environment that is at least 10 times worse, college. Your kids have worked their butts off, let them have a week to blow off steam. Trust me, beach week isn't nearly as bad as you imagine it to be. College, however, is worse than you imagined.

[Gail]

Give me a break people. Beach week is a rite of passage. Kids get laid, drink, frolic, and seem to get through it ok. By not allowing them to go you are just postponing the inevitable when they leave for college in just a few months.

[Dragon Lady]

Really? So my sons went wild in college? No, they did not. You see, some people do not indulge their little darlings and raise them to think that they can do whatever they want, whenever they want. Besides, who pays for this week of getting laid and getting drunk? The parents pay for it. Get real. If you think parents have no right to say "no" to beach week, you are part of the problem. Rite of passage my left hind leg. What a farce.

[Ivyleague Senior]

Hate to break it to you dragon lady, but just because you think your sons didn't "go wild" in college, doesn't mean they didn't. More likely, they knew you would overreact and didn't confide in you about anything. If that's the kind of relationship you want with your children, go ahead.

As for money...I have plenty of friends, including myself, who paid they're own way for beach week. It's a few hundred dollars, not any more than plenty of snoburbians pay for homecoming/prom dresses. A better lesson than forbidding your children from going would be telling them that if they want to go they have to pay for it themselves. Teaches them responsibility and independence, 2 things that will make succeeding in college a heck of a lot easier.

[Dragon Lady]

Ivyleague Senior, you have a lot to learn about life. Just because I did not allow them to go to the vaunted Beach Week doesn't mean anything regarding the kind of relationship we had then or have now. Younger son did do a lot of drinking in college, but that had nothing to do with Beach Week. He still drinks--responsibly, and not rotgut either. He has good taste. Older son didn't drink after watching his roommates throw up all over the suite and fail out of classes. Wasn't worth it to him. And yes, he does drink--responsibly. Father of two, president of his company, etc. You know nothing about raising a family yet. You will learn, Grasshopper.

[Charlene]

I don't know what's funnier, people thinking their kids don't party, or kids thinking their parents didn't.

[Glug glug glug]

When i was 18, drinking was legal ( BIG MISTAKE ! ). I'd prefer that my children skip the drama and destruction of beach week.

[Queen of the Weezils]

Hell, I didn't want to go to beach week. All the "cool kids" were there and I went out of my way to avoid those idiots. Bad enough I had to go to school with them. My parents didn't need to forbid me to go; I had no desire to.

I hope the Beach Week agenda including a lecture on Keep Your Drunk A** At The Beach House So You Don't Do Dumb Sh*t In Public And Lose Your College Scholarship And/Or End Up In Jail.

Face it, at 18 they are old enough to know better. If police - of any jurisdiction - nails them on being that dumb, they deserve whatever comes their way. Save the scholarship money for students with an iota of common sense.

[Diana Holquist]

I just feel sorry for the folks whose houses they rent.

[Dragon Lady]

Queen of the Weezils, that was exactly how many people felt "back in my day" and that of my sons. The "cool" kids can be really obnoxious as a whole. I know of one kid who lost his chance at a prestigious school as a result of underage drinking during Beach Week--he got caught and that door slammed shut. Not a cool thing to happen when you are 18, but it can and does happen--even in the best of families.

[No longer in Olney.]

Such white-privilege problems.

[MusicIsLifeMD]

I almost went to beach week last June. Granted, it was going to be the last week in June and ONLY because we got H.S. senior rates for a place to stay. But ended up not going because neither my friend or I (just the two of us) could afford to split $1500 between us and our parent's weren't paying for anything.

But we were only going because we wanted to do something special for Graduation and I had never been (and still have never been) to Ocean City. We just wanted to have a little bit of fun without alcohol or drugs (i don't like the taste of alcohol and she has a relative who died from drinking too much one night, so neither of us drink).

In the end I ended up going to Florida for a week. My mom's friend had just moved down there so I got a free place to stay and free food. Between seeing the last space shuttle take off in her back yard to visiting Harry Potter world, it was better than beach week would have been.

[Eva Swanson]

Why can't everyone get along. Go to beach week or not. It is an individual's choice. Some families think it is fine--others don't. Long- winded, holier-than-thou diatribes are fruitless, entertaining reading though they may be. I have to go to my daughter's beach week meeting tonight and as the hour gets closer I am starting to think about alcohol as much as these seniors. I am so sick of middle class parenting being practiced as a competitive sport I cannot wait for the end of my youngest child's senior year so I never ever have to listen to or read this type of crap again. oops sorry got a little worked up :)

[Queen of the Weezils]

*You're* going to your daughter's beach week meeting? As hilarious as the idea of beach week meetings are, it is even more hilarious to think that parents are involved. These are high school seniors - adults, or nearly so, correct? Exactly. They should be capable of planning, and funding, it without parental help. The parents need only give permission or not.

[Amanda]

So how many got arrested? How many girls had to run to get the morning after pill? How many teens got laid for the first time?

Details please.

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