OK. I checked the grades so now I’m officially helicoptering.
I can’t check my own grades!
I could have checked my daughter’s grades at her public high school, but never bothered. After all, you really don’t have to check the grades of someone getting all A-pluses, she said smugly. 
My DD will be attending BS in September. She is the youngest. The others went to the local schools mainly because we had not been introduced to boarding schools until my DD school had a high school fair. A mother at my church told me that she feels that she sees sending her child to boarding school equivalent to abdicating her parental responsibility. I really didn’t say anything because I was a little taken back by her comment. I see this as an opportunity of a lifetime for my DD and she is not across the world she is slightly over 4 hours away.
@Sarrip My daughter goes to a FOUR WEEK summer camp a state away from me where they don’t allow phones or electronics of any kind. Many of the parents in our town think I’m a HORRIBLE parent to do this and I know that because they basically tell me! They say that “I’m getting rid of her” and “It’s in the mountains!!! What if something happens!!!” or “How could you possibly make her go there and be away from home and friends for 4 weeks!!!” and I look at them with this look like seriously…are you kidding me right now…it’s 4 weeks…at camp…that she LOVES! People just don’t seem to think before they speak! Anything foreign to them is fair game I guess to say anything they want!
My son went to a camp for years with no electronics too. 600 acres in the mountains. He had to write letters home and the only way to reach him was through letters too. He went for 7 years and the last summer was 7 weeks (full summer had a visiting day). He loved it. It was great experience and most kids came back for multiple summers. The staff have phones and computers so
it’s not like the whole place is off the grid if there is a problem. Like the year they had the kids stay in their cabins because a bear wandered into camp. Then we found out they have a bear protocol.
Our son went to Island School in the Bahamas for 13 weeks junior year. No cell service, social media or Internet. He got a 20 min phone call home once a week. 7 day ocean kayak trip , 48 hours solo on island by himself- 4 mile open ocean swim for his final- he would tell you - best time of his life. Of course they also had a hurricane hit that year. I did get to attend parents weekend about 9 weeks in - amazing experience!
@MA2012 What camp was it if you don’t mind me asking?
@sarrip Now that you’ve chosen a school for your DD, can you reveal where she will be attending?
@sarrip Don’t let them get to you. Letting your kids go because it is the best thing for them is fulfilling your parental responsibility despite your own desires, which is what parents are supposed to do. It ain’t easy.
Although we have given our daughter more independence than her peers at some points (in 2nd grade letting her walk 2 blocks to elementary school without us in the crowd of other parents and students, in 3rd or 4th grade letting her ride her bike a half-mile to soccer practice, and going to 4 weeks of overnight summer camp starting the summer after 3rd grade), we have gotten comments from other people on all of these. Luckily no one called the cops on us! Although a stranger stopped her on her bike once to ask where her parents were! But I have to say that the Island School strikes fear into my residual-helicopter heart! It must be the sharks and the 48 hr solo thing. Lawrence Academy sends kids to Island School and my daughter totally wanted to do that if she went to Lawrence. She decided on Governor’s so I don’t have to face that particular fear yet…
@Sarrip there is an entire thread devoted to negative reactions from people about boarding school. It’s very common to negotiate that. Bummer… but true