Would you let your child go on this school trip?

[Bubblegirly]

Hello

7yr old in year 3 has the opportunity to go to London to see a musical. It’s for those children who are involved in performing arts at school. It’s an evening performance and coach will likely not be home to midnight. It’s on a school night (organised by school) and children are allowed in later the next day.

1 parent is point blank saying no because it’s too late!
other parent thinks 1 late night is ok for a child that has a well established routine generally and that they will be sad to miss out!

YANBU = let them go
YABU= don’t let them go it’s too late

Yes let them go, ita one night. School will be late the next day.

My ds went on a similar trip at a similar age. He had a great time, slept in the coach on the way home, then slept in the car from the school, back to the house, and was fine the next day.

I don't think one isolated trip will do any harm.

You told us what another parent has decided but what have you decided OP?

Yes and my daughter did something similar in year 3. Young Voices at the 02. They didn't get back to school until after 11pm and went in late the next day.

All the kids loved.

It's ridiculous for the school to arrange a trip like this.

But I'd definitely send.
It's one night.
No-one's going to die of one going to be late one night.

The school has already said the kids can go in later the next day.
If DC were particularly knackered, I'd just keep them off the whole of the next day.

Fair point

My 7 year old would love this. 100% yes.

At 10 - yes definitely. At 7 - yes in principle but it depends on the child, but I'd raise an eyebrow at the organisers choosing an evening performance over a matinee. Overall I'd say yes unless there was a compelling reason not to. Being tired the next day wouldn't come in to it.

God this!

I mean, if we never bent 'the rules' in order to experience life in all it's glory, what the fuck is the point of living?

I’d let my child go despite the late night. I think they’d get a lot out of it. My children have really enjoyed school theatre trips (not very theatrical y4 son came home from the Lion King with stars in his eyes saying it was ‘phenomenal’ - I didn’t know he knew the word) and the cost is much less than for a non school theatre trip.

But theatre trips at their (state) schools have always been Wednesday matinees. I’m surprised this is an evening.

It depends. One of mine would have been fine with it, the other would have got too tired and quite possibly thrown up (her response to being over tired).
Also depends on the home situation. A single parent with no car and 2 under age of 4 would find it harder than someone who can just nip down the road to pick them up at midnight. Others would find it hard to drop the kids off late next day if they had to be at work, so hopefully they would still be able to go in at normal time.
I know school is not childcare, but they don't have to make life so bloody difficult.

The occasional life experience is worth a bedtime exception. In this case the school will even understand that the children are a bit tired the next day. This is an obvious yes.

100% let them go. It's 1 late night, with 1 slightly/tired grumpy day afterwards.
Our school did this when they performed at the O2, it was a fabulous experience.
99% mine are in bed on time, never miss school, but it's important to make occasional exceptions for specific events.

Totally depends on the child. At 7, some can cope with late nights and others can’t. Mine would not sleep on the coach and has never fallen asleep in the car (must to my annoyance!). If I let her go and she was home at midnight she would be a total nightmare the next day wouldn’t manage school the next day so I would expect the school to authorise the day off - which also wouldn’t work for me as I have a job. At this age, a 10pm is a “one-off”, not midnight which may get pushed further with any travel delay etc.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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)

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

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.

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.

Definitely let them go!

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