I said I'd never do this but ...

[Earningsthread]

Going on a business trip next week. This is very frequent, but I have been engaged in a project in a lovely European city (like Paris, though it is not, and do not want to out myself).

DD has just finished her mock GCSEs and is moaning that she is not doing anything in school. Would I be unreasonable to take her with me? My meetings are Thursday and Friday. She would come out with me on Wednesday. Mooch around on her own on Thursday and Friday. Then on Saturday and Sunday we would do some serious art-gallery bashing.

We investigated her flying out on her own on Saturday but (a) the flights don't work (b) the companies in question do not take unaccompanied minors and DD is only 15 and (c) the flights out on Saturday on her own would take 10 hours, unimaginably while they are much more efficient in the week.

So, what do you think?

If it's going to cost £1000 to have her there, no, because you could both have a great break in a city of culture after her actual.GCSEs before the prices go up.

And because out of all the time at school, the ones I'd probably prioritise would be first weeks of y7, all of y10 and y11, and definitely time between mocks and actual.exams.

SoupDragon - not all 15-year old girls are as irresponsible as you appear to have been. At 15, my thinking processes would NOT have been to be so excited at the thought of having £1,000 spent on me to go looking around foreign art galleries that I didn't care what I would be missing at school, because funnily enough I would have been aware that I was the one who would have to catch up on what I missed/might not be able to catch up. My GCSE year was MY GCSE year, not my mother's. And to be perfectly honest, I resented the amount of time spent on preparing for exams and talking over mock exams, because it really did get in the way of learning anything new at school and was not necessary to that degree for someone who had already paid attention and worked hard all the way along and who did not have a problem with exam technique, anyway. All that excessively dull preparation time was to help people who hadn't worked hard as they went along, were cramming at the last minute, or had worked hard but not really understood, or who had poor exam technique. That part of the year was BORING AS HELL.

Yes, the 15yo girls I know do make sensible decisions. But then, they are accustomed to being trusted to make decisions so they have practice. Perhaps it is different for people who are treated as children through their teen years, and many of them behave as irresponsibly as they are expected to behave.

Work are of course fine with me taking a day off on Monday and staying over the weekend - although obviously I am paying for the extra days in the hotel.

Flying out on Wednesday is necessary because I have to be at a dinner on the Wednesday night (plus the way the flights work are a nightmare, seriously).

I know I shouldn't take her so I won't. She is grumpy with me, but the advice to take a trip together in the hols is obviously right, so we are having a girly break for 5 days over the christmas holidays instead.

This will make the pearl clutchers clutch but my school authorised a 2 week trip to the US in the March of Yr 11 for me! In the end I didn't go - my parents went off and I fended for myself for 2 weeks, it was amazing!

I'd go - maybe she could take revision guides or something so she can 'keep up'.

I'm glad you have a plan you are comfortable with. Good luck to your daughter in her exams!

My DD is year 11 and has just finished her mocks and is getting the results back
she is also taking lots of time out of normal lessons for carol concert rehearsals
same as other kids are taking time out for sport team practice

sorry but all the crap about "you cannot make up a few lessons" is exactly that - because kids on school teams / orchestras / clubs / choirs / extension seem to magically cope when pulled out of timetable

OP
take her with you - but work out the 'objectives' of the trip
I've taken my two out of school when it fitted around DH doing an international conference : no guilt and we brough beck resources for the whole class

DS missed two days last half-term on a school trip and has been slogging every lunchtime since then to catch up on missed assessments. Sorry, but I wouldn't, however tempting!

June next year, OTOH, would be brilliant.