<p>D is all the way across the country from home so she is not coming for spring break. Her plans were to go with a couple of friends from school down to Washington DC for a few days.
This now sounds like it may have changed and D will either just stay at school or visit relatives in CT for a couple of days.</p>
<p>Both my kids are coming home - break isn’t that long. I think the younger one would like to see his high school friends if he has any overlaps since his winter break in Pakistan and India met he kind of missed out on seeing much of them.</p>
<p>The only time I didn’t go home for spring break was when my parents were living in Africa, though I admit, one break I went home for a few days and then spent another few days hiking the Appalachian Trail with my boyfriend.</p>
<p>My son is heading home. He will be working and visiting with some high school friends.</p>
<p>Yes, Mexico is way scarier than Israel right now.
Are any students going on alternative or service trips? This is what my kids have always done - they have always been very inexpensive and involved building houses, working with kids, planting trees, or other such activities.</p>
<p>daughter studying in London is going to Brussels, Florence, Venice and somewhere else that escapes me right now…entire trip cost maybe? $400 with transportation; this is the first year she won’t be home for spring break…</p>
<p>I do know alot of kids doing alternative spring breaks with Hillel in cities across the US as well as Central America…</p>
<p>levirm, its what my D will be doing " community service trip" to Costa-Rica…</p>
<p>My son is coming home. We have some landscaping to do so he’ll spend his time on the dumb end of a shovel…</p>
<p>My child is coming home too, but the only thing they’ll be able to shovel will be the remaining snow piles! At this rate, maybe we can landscape when it melts in July…</p>
<p>Mini Van</p>
<p>I am actually hoping for some nasty weather when he is here…added incentive to finish out the year strong…</p>
<p>I wish we could do some landscaping! We still have about three feet of snow on the ground…more in drifted areas. Could be another foot early next week. I am jealous!</p>
<p>I’m with the folks who don’t get the Spring Break thing. We parents can’t afford to take off work to go on a spring break, but our kids do, with “their” money, ie, the money they have because we don’t charge them for their phones/tuition/whatever? My kids wouldn’t even ask. They know better. And when I was a college student, my folks would have told me that I had some nerve thinking I’d go off to some beach rather than come home and spend time with the family who has sacrificed their whole lives so that I could go to college. With some exceptions of course, this whole spring break party scene smacks of over-indulged, entitled children.</p>
<p>That said, D is across the country, so she will go to the home of a fellow student’s family during spring break. Happens to be in NYC, so she’s happy! And yes, we let her buy some tix to the symphony. And we bought her bus ticket. And I put some extra funds into her bank account. But thousands of dollars to spend on alcohol, air fares, hotels, and hook-ups? While DH works 60 plus hours per week so that we can pay for college with no loans for anyone? Never. It’s insane, IMO.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think we do things backwards. I remember when I graduated from college (funded by my parents) that they threw me a graduation party at a nice restaurant. I was thinking that it was I who should have thrown THEM a party in thanks for all they had done for me! All I did was what was expected: finish my degree. What they did was well above and beyond expectations, ie, pay for the whole thing and expect nothing in return (other than continuing to honor my parents).</p>
<p>End of rant. If students are supporting themselves and paying for school with merit scholarships and work, if they manage to scrape together $ for a spring break trip, then more power to them! But if they are using my taxpayer dollars via a Cal-grant or some other government grant, then that is really not acceptable. Give me my money back! I feel like visiting Costa Rica.</p>
<p>^I agree with you.</p>
<p>Both of mine are coming home. No money in the family EFC for vacations, and the money they earn goes towards their books/personal expenses. (S1, who has more earning power, has paid for a couple of weekend trips over the past three years, but he crashes on couches at his destination. A couple of these trips are for an EC he’s involved in which doesn’t have $$ to fund travel.) </p>
<p>Can’t imagine either of them asking to go on a spring break trip, either with our money or theirs. Frankly, they are both happy to come home, decompress, play with the dog, eat “regular” food and sleep in a quiet house. 
</p>
<p>That said, when S2 does his study abroad, we expect he will want to do some additional traveling and will budget accordingly (and expect him to kick in his share). </p>
<p>We are happy to host their friends who don’t have a place to go while the dorms close and who want to come sightsee in DC, do research, etc. Did that over winter break and will be doing it again this month.</p>
<p>S2 is going to be job hunting and making some extra cash by doing heavy work (yard work, clearing stuff out of the basement) that I can’t do myself. We will all head down to the Tidal Pool for the cherry blossoms – a family tradition we have maintained every year since they were born.</p>
<p>This just in: Texas public safety warning about Mexico
[Texas</a> To Students: For Spring Break, Don’t Mess With Mexico : The Two-Way : NPR](<a href=“Texas To Students: For Spring Break, Don't Mess With Mexico : The Two-Way : NPR”>Texas To Students: For Spring Break, Don't Mess With Mexico : The Two-Way : NPR)</p>
<p>Well said Sopranomom. I agree with everything you said!!!</p>
<p>Mine are coming home. :)</p>
<p>And after a week of “break” with the 'rents, both guys will be glad to get back to their lives at school. I will be glad to get back to a clean(er) house, though I will miss them.</p>
<p>D is going on her team’s spring training trip, as always.</p>
<p>S is looking for cheap destinations for camping/backpacking within a 1-2 day driving distance of the SF Bay Area, for exactly the reasons other people mention - his friends don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on trips. If anyone has any ideas he’d be happy to entertain them. I suggested Death Valley, Joshua Tree, or the Channel Islands (although the boat trip to/from Santa Cruz Island may put it out of their price range).</p>
<p>I don’t approve of the drinking/partying orgies as popularized on MTV, but otherwise I don’t understand peoples’ objections to a spring break trip. These guys have been working at least as hard as I ever got paid to work (they’re engineering majors), and they need time to de-stress. This is their chance to see a bit more of the spectacular state of California. College shouldn’t be 100% hitting the books. They should be broadening their minds in a lot of ways, including travel.</p>
<p>I don’t have objections to Spring Break destination trips per se. They just aren’t on my kids’ radar. Heck, we live in a tourist destination, so I could post that they spent a week going to Washington, DC and seeing the Washington Monument, Air & Space, various art galleries, the Vietnam Vets Memorial and sitting in the gallery in Congress, and some folks might be offended. The cost is the Metro fare; everything else is free.</p>
<p>If it were warm enough to camp around here for Spring Break, that would be something our entire family would consider! :)</p>
<p>I’d like that spring trip, CountingDown! I could spend a whole day just at the Air and Space Museum!</p>