Would you let your child go on this school trip?

Yes. Cultural capital is important. Does your child want to go?

Oh yes, it's something they’ll always remember. Childhood is meant to have the odd late night excitement of being on a coach with your pals, eating sweets and having fun. If mine was too exhausted the next day, she’d go in after lunch.

100% DD would be going!

Sounds great if your child wants to go. However people do need to take into account someone will have to collect them late and someone will have to drop them late into school the next day.

Sounds off, given that the poster was indicating real life problems that impact on some parents every single day when even the slightest change to the school day is made.

If a child wants to go, are plans put in place to allow that, even if their parents can't pick up out of hours or can't drop off late.

Im on the fence one child would of been gone the other a nightmare if up late. Probably sleep on the coach though if you sent a blanket and a cuddly cushion

You say the child is involved in performing arts - welcome to the world of MT/acting parents. There will be shows, performances and events all which have late finishes. But they thrive on the buzz of both performing and watching others perform. I first took my DD to a west end show when she was 4 - that’s probably what lit her fire, she slept in the car home and was fine the next day. This is now career and Mamma Mia at 4 and Wicked at 8 are two defining moments for her.

Oh absolutely let them go if they want to! It’s one night and they will make amazing memories, I took DD to a pop concert when she was 6 and we didn’t get home till 1ish, she went to school the next day at normal time I just made sure the teacher knew she’d had a late night. She still talks about it years later, well worth the one off late night!

Yes definitely...it's a one off and will probably be very exciting for them. I guess a lot would fall asleep on the way home

Seven year olds, that late at night will be tired, tearful, sick, out of routine, grumpy, scared of the dark

Why woud they be scared of the dark? A seven year old has seen 'the dark' before.

It's fine, and exciting, let them go!

How much do they want to go? If the answer is they're really keen, let them go.

If they're meh about it ask them if they'd like to go. If they say yes let them.

If they don't want to go, don't send them.

See easy peasy.

I just think about the teachers and aides who don't get to see their own families at all that day because they left home at sparrowfart and don't get home till 2am the following morning.

Then are back in at work after 7am the next day.

So our kids can have these experiences.

Those CUNTS.

It's one night.
Sounds like an amazing experience.
I wouldn't think twice and would be really excited on DS's behalf.

Definitely let them go!

Even if they end up staying home all day the next day, it’ll be worth it.

It’s one day. Yes I’m sure they’ll be tired the next day but so what, give them an early night if needed to catch up on sleep.

Sometimes we can get so caught up in thinking we must stick to routines and rules that we miss out on great experiences.

I agree it totally depends on the DC. MY youngest would love this. My eldest (ND) would struggle for weeks to recover from this and it would massively impact our home life and his education.

I don’t know why we bother at all as teachers if this is the attitude. I give up.

I've always been lax with bedtimes for special occasions (or just because its summer and the sun is shining late into the night so lets go for a walk at 10pm) so I know my children will/would have coped just fine and I would absolutely let them go but I can understand being reluctant if you have a child that you know will be a mess from the late night. Which is perhaps why I always was lax - I wanted my children to be able to handle late nights when needed (after one Christmas Eve as a teenager we had to move our big dinner two hours earlier because the family we invited to eat with us had children that were so dependent on their routines they couldn't stay up a couple of hours later)

If they can go in late the next day then I don’t see a problem.

Mind your own business about what other parents think.

i wouldn’t be at all happy although would grudgingly possibly say yes so my child didn’t have people like you judging them and the other kids making them feel bad.

If both parents work there is no option to send them in late so that’s bollocks and as per usual the stay at home mummies miss the point of that one.

if the parent is a single parent with other kids then how do they collect that late at night without disturbing their other kids too to haul them along.

If parents don’t drive are they getting an uber at that time and incurring cost as there won’t be a bus home at that time?

Plus some kids cope VERY badly with disruptions to sleep routines. This would throw my kids off for days. They don’t nap, don’t just lie in the next day and if we had any plans the weekend after this they would be wrecked.

Id be pissed that school didn’t just go for a matinee and take all this hassle out the equation.

So many of these plans for ‘amazing experiences’ are based on the idea of a family with a car and two parents one of whom doesn’t work so can flex the following day at a whim let alone easy going kids who just nap on the coach and bounce back the next day after a lie in.

I was militant about my daughter getting enough sleep. It’s so important for kids to sleep properly. I would absolutely have let her go on the trip, and even offered to be a parent helper as it sounds fabulous! I would have kept her off school the next day. We took her to the Edinburgh Tattoo where one of our friends was performing with the Royal Marine’s Band. She was obsessed with them at the time. We didn’t get home until after midnight. As a one off, it’s absolutely fine.

I’d let them go. My son did something like this in Year 4 (Young Voices concert), super late night, fell asleep on the coach on the way home, was tired the next day, but has great memories of the concert.

Oh no if the innocent babes are abroad after nightfall the vampyres will get them

I haven’t voted because I think it depends on the child and their routine and capabilities. My eldest at that age would have been fine, middle no as she loved to sleep 12 hours a night and was fast asleep at 7pm at that age so wouldn’t have been worth it, she’d had been snoozing through the expensive musical. My youngest barely slept but was a pain in the arse in the evenings (meltdowns) so also no for her!