<p>This is the biggest question I have been asking myself lately. How will I stay in touch with my family and very close friends at home? Which methods are most effective? How do most students at BS stay in touch? Do kids usually stay on campus on long weekends, and what to do about school vacations? Any experienced students or parents of BS students, please answer! I really would love to know!</p>
<p>With my D, she spends a lot of time texting her friends with her cell phone. Fortunately most of her friends have the same wireless carrier, so talk is cheap. </p>
<p>As to long weekends and other breaks, my D's school has a long weekend in October and one in January. Other than that there is T'day, Year end, and Spring breaks. </p>
<p>For the 2 long weekends, she went to friends/relatives homes in the region (loosely defined), although her school does sponsor a ski trip in January. Home is the destination for the holiday and spring breaks.</p>
<p>My D's school is 5 1/2 days a week with just those breaks, so there really isn't much down time to manage.</p>
<p>How often do you talk to friends and family while at boarding school? Every day, once a week? Once a month? Once a year?</p>
<p>Friends less often, family more often I guess. Unless you IM your friends online.</p>
<p>I'm guessing from what I've read about students describing their day that you get a certain time at night to call your parents. And of course, you e-mail them too. On long weekends, I think most of them go home. Or at least with friends on a little trip.</p>
<p>My D is a Lower at Exeter and this is her second year. When she first went away we imed every night; that helped her with the adjustment a lot; she said she really needed that connection. After that first Christmas it became less important and by May we imed about once a week. This year it's usually every two weeks! The whole family has gone up to Exeter twice this year: for Parents Weekend and to see a play she was in.<br>
I encourage parents to learn how to im; I learned how the summer before my D went away and it has been a wonderful way to keep in touch.</p>
<p>My children IM me from downstairs now! Once when she was away, I was really desperate to ask my daughter a question- I left it on her MySpace profile. She quickly erased it and called home!</p>
<p>I have a sidekick and my parents have both blackberrys and cell phones...i'd be talking mostly through that.</p>
<p>When I went to camp, I talked to my mom on my cell phone and we emailed each other.</p>
<p>My son's first year at school, we also IM'd every evening. He also came home every w/e as we didn't live that far away from the school. As the years went by he came home less and hardly at all once he was a senior as he was a student leader and was required to stay.</p>
<p>Do you think that your relationship would have been different had he stayed home? Or, as a quesiton to anyone who has s/d or is a s/d @ BS...how do you think it has affected relations w/ family...+ly? -ly?</p>
<p>Thta's a very good question abkat and one that I am worried about myself.</p>
<p>Yeah...I have great relationships w/ parents & siblings...want to know how BS affects them. If anyone out there is at BS now, and knows the aswer to my question...plz post!</p>
<p>In many cases the relationship improves because the boarder appreciates the family more and vice versa.</p>
<p>Is that how you've found it with your child, BP? (sorry if I use that nickname ;))</p>
<p>I still think I probably saw him more than a lot of his public school peers saw their families. For instance, the breaks are much longer....more like college...and when my son came home for break, he stayed with us the entire time. Also, he was home almost a full month longer in the summer. I think we saw less of the teen "irritable" side of him, because when he did come home on w/e's and vacations, he was so happy to be with us that he was on his best behavior!
We have an excellent relationship now and are very close. I think bs made him much more independent and ready for college.</p>
<p>Cell phone and the students text each other all over campus during the alloted times. There are many packages out there, about 35 a month.
But, not all schools allow cell phones.</p>
<p>I IM with my kids all the time- through boarding school and now college. They keep in touch with friends through IM and texting (and cell calls). I called them frequently while they were at boarding school. I don't think either of my kids had trouble keeping in touch with friends. It is a very electronic and mobile society these days.</p>
<p>What are some schools that don't allow cell phones?</p>
<p>If I'm not mistaken, Loomis does not permit cell phones.</p>
<p>Last year Loomis did allow cell phones in the dorms, but the policy is not to have students walking all over campus on their cell phones or having them go off in class. After adjusting to the policy the first few weeks, our s said it was actually nice not to have the distraction of kids texting during class and loudly talking on cell phones during meals and in the athletic buildings. (He said that one purpose of the policy was also to promote more face-to-face interaction on campus.)</p>