If my DS is in school outside of boston and can get a direct flight, is it feasible to come home on weekends? What is a long weekend schedule for the BS kids?
It will vary from school to school but I wouldn’t expect many kids would travel cross country for even a long weekend. DS had two 4 day weekends this year, but one was parents weekend. He gets a 10 day Thanksgiving break, and almost 2.5 weeks in December and March. There are usually activities, not to mention homework, on most regular weekends.
I would highly discourage it. It’s about a five hour flight back and forth… That takes a toll. And some schools have Saturday classes, which would make that virtually impossible.
It really depends on the school. For the long weekends at my son’s school it is usually a half a day of classes on a weekday. I think that it was a Thursday for winter break and then he had to be back in the dorm by Monday at nine. It is doable to go to California, but pretty tight.
Lawrenceville’s version of a long weekend is what most people consider normal weekends. Saturday and Sunday, what a gift!
We have the opposite scenario - West Coast kiddo and East Coast home - and much as it would be great, it’s not really feasible… perhaps for a very special, once-in-a-blue-moon long weekend, but not really. Flights to and fro take 6-7 hours, plus transport times, plus time difference, plus jet lag. Makes for a long day of travel and a tired kid. We try to make up for it by visiting the kiddo when we can instead, and making the most of the various breaks.
@Momto4kids Thanks to all. DS school looks like an 1130 am end on Friday and back to school by 9pm monday. So he would arrive by Friday night and leave Monday morning. Just wondered if anyone has experience with these types of weekends. Do most kids stay or will he be by himself if he doesn’t come home?
At my kid’s school, they tend to stick around unless their home is within a couple of hours from school. Often they will go home with a day student or a kid from an hour or two away. Even long weekends have homework… For my kid, usually at least a full day is spent on hw, even if she comes home. The school usually plans a number of outings and activities during those weekends for those staying on campus.
Your son will have PLENTY of company.
Case in point: S2’s roommate’s home is only an hour away, but roommate likes to stay on campus and hang w friends during long weekends unencumbered by class/homework/sports commitments.
We are in the opposite boat geographically, and probably wouldn’t consider a weekend trip home except under special circumstances. There are always activities planned, and we have found that many kids stay on campus, or go home with a friend who lives closer (day student). Additionally, even though DD is traveling a very popular route (LAX/NYC) finding the ideal flight times aren’t easy - so it is an exhausting trip. I have found it easier to go to her, & between parents’ weekends and maybe another visit here or there, we see each other at least 1x per month. I also think that, at least during Freshman/Sophmore years, staying on campus for those days off, and participating in the fun activities that the school organizes, is an important bonding experience.
You may want to check on a website like Kayak, which compares flights from many airlines (but not Southwest). Looks like there are a few options leaving Boston in the late afternoon on Friday and getting to LAX around 9pm that night, but in order to return by Monday at 9pm, your child would have to leave LA early in the morning on Monday.
Also keep in mind that most airlines have age limits for minors traveling alone. Typically this requires a willing adult to drop and pickup the child at the airport.
I live 4000 miles away from my BS, and as much as I love my parents, there is no way on God’s green earth that I am taking a 7 hour flight to stay for 2 days. Jet lag is never fun and it’s difficult to get back into the BS routine in you are physically exhausted.
The options for the long weekend are as extensive, if not more so, as those for a regular weekend. Assuming the campus does not close, the dorms will have plenty of kids who did not leave for the weekend. Another option, and one that will certainly need to be explored if the campus does close, is to stay with a friend who is a day student or who is a boarder living close by.
Expensive as it is, the best option for a long weekend if you want to spend time with the kid would be for you to fly east and rent a house or get a hotel for 2 or 3 nights. Take your kid out of school as soon as classes are out and drop her/him off right before curfew. Then you are the one dealing with the travel and jet lag and it does not put a burden on the kid. And honestly, it would be a burden as the kids need this time to unwind, not have more scheduling and travel stress on top of everything else.
This is not the same as having the kid at home, but having the kid home is simply too hard and burdensome to make it worthwhile in my opinion.
I just,asked my son what kids who live far away typically do over long weekends. He said that most of them stay in the dorms. I can imagine it would be nice to be on a quiet campus while everyone else is gone. Also, at his school they don’t give work over long weekends. It’s definitely a chance to decompress.
Most people stay over long weekends, unless they live in an hour or two drive from campus.
First off, he won’t want to come home 
We live in California also, and traveling is difficult. Our son stays on campus for those rare long weekends.