Taking Children Out of School for Thanksgiving

[bagofsnakes]

Any other US parents take their children out of school for thanksgiving?
We took our son out last year but as he was under 5 the school really didn’t care. This year we put in a formal request but it has been denied. It’ll go down as unauthorised. Are we the only ones that do this? I know that there are other American families in school and I know that at least one of them just tells the school that her kids are sick every Thanksgiving, although I’m not keen to go this route.
Background - I’m a UK citizen but DH and DC are US (DC born in US) but now live in UK. For those who aren’t familiar, Thanksgiving in the US is a super big deal, more so
Than Christmas for many families.

Biddy the parade is from 9-12 EST. My DC don’t get home from school until 5:00 so no, they wouldn’t be able to watch it - assuming I had a way to watch it!

Our school might be considered progressive then - they don't expect DCs to be taken out of school for various festivals - but they learn about and do some celebration of lots of different ones. (Sometimes there are DCs of the relevant faith/culture involved, others there are no DCs of that faith/culture in the school).

(Apologies if I spell any of the following wrong - I am catholic and doing these phonetically).

So they have made little tea-light lanterns out of jam-jars for Eid and something similar for Diwali and other celebrations of light for Hanukkah, learned about the importance of (and eaten) apples and honey for Rosh-Hashana, done some elements of Christmas and Easter celebrations (but it is a "Winter Festival" not a "Christmas Fair"), talked about the importance of atonement and fasting in relation to Ramadan, Lent and (Yom Kippur?), and I know I've heard Holy (Holi?) mentioned in passing as well (I think that's a Hindu festival).

In our family, I celebrate US thanksgiving (as having been born there), DB celebrates Canadian TG (as he lives there), DS celebrates Hogmanay (as she lives in Scotland) and we all celebrate St Patrick's Day and Hallowe'en (being Irish). And pay some sort of passing observance (depending on the levels of individual beliefs) to Advent, Christmas, Lent and Easter.

Thank you to all the US parents who gave their opinion/shared their experience, all very helpful. Thank you also to the non-US parents who gave thoughtful responses.

To those who just waded in with their shock and disapproval – do you really have nothing better to do?? You could really do with something to get you away from the talk forums. You know, maybe the UK could do with a secular family festival in late November…

Right, just to be clear, it’s not a consideration, we are taking him out of school. The school doesn’t fine for one day of absence.
I really just wanted to hear from others to see if they do take their children out and, if so, if they tell the school or if they just have children who are conveniently unwell every 4th Thursday in November. A US family in DCs school do take the latter approach and it seems to be a bit of an open secret, maybe we should follow their lead next year. As it is, we have told the school and he will be going back in to school on the Friday with a selection of his Thanksgiving crafts for a bit of a show and tell.

DH doesn’t ask for much in terms of supporting cultural ties to the US other than our trips there, just Thanksgiving as it’s so important to him. The other Americans in his office also take the days off although they don’t have children. As BeautifulWinter said, the way I look at it is if we were living in a country where the 25th December was a regular work/school day, if it was at all possible, I would absolutely take the day off and the children out of school.

Please don’t feel the need to respond again if you are not a US parent or if you don’t have anything genuinely helpful to add. Really, go on, do something else. Go and make a cup of tea. Treat yourself.

Peace.

PS - thanks for parade streaming tips – that was an unforeseen but very welcome outcome of starting this thread!

No, have never done so. I'm American, husband and 3DC are Scottish. We get a chippy for tea on Thanksgiving and I'm thankful I don't have to cook or do the washing up. Tbh, I never got het up over Thanksgiving in the 31 years I lived there. It's just a day off from work. I usually had to work the day after. Meh.

Mum used to do Thanksgiving supper but that reduced once she married an Englishman.
My family prefer goose at Christmas - turkey is best in Chilli
so Thansgiving has never been a big thing.

As I say, Americans work on Boxing Day
the English work on January 2nd

when in Rome and all that

You really are horribly rude OP.

Wow, you sound very nice. I am not an American(though I grew up there partly), but not British either. Only commented because I do get the cultural difference. Sorry about that.

irvineoneohone your message wasn't in anyway offensive, if fact you gave a reasonable point for consideration. If you read through the thread, there are some comments that boarder on trolling and that's really not ok. They didn't have anything to add apart from to tell me that I'm wrong, which isn't helpful or necessary.

You clearly don't understand the significance of thanksgiving. It's equal to a holiday like bonfire night. It celebrates an event which is why people get it confused with holidays such as Easter and Christmas. However thanksgiving originated as a harvest festival. It was celebrated by pilgrims and native Indians (not sure what their official classification is these days and I hope I haven't offended anyone). It's a holiday that has grown and grown because it's not a religious observance. Another big reason for thanksgiving being heavily celebrated is because it marks the transition to the holiday season (celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah).

I watched the parade once. I was at the gym that morning because I'd been bamboozled into paying a fortune to go to Puerto Rico for ex h's brother's wedding and I needed to blow off some steam. It was pretty boring. Can't remember what we did the rest of the day because it involved large quantities of alcohol, but I don't think there was any turkey involved. I think there were some football games on in the afternoon.

However thanksgiving originated as a harvest festival.

Exactly. An Anglican harvest festival. So actually an export to the colonies, like Halloween was exported from Ireland and Scotland. And like Halloween, we just made a much bigger deal out of it.

I guess I never understood the significance of Thanksgiving, either. Lincoln made it up in 1863. But hey, day off and all!

Ahh Santa at the end of the parade. And then it’s officially the Christmas season. Thanks to Thanksgiving my older kids know what a first down is. 😬. DH still not so sure. DHs first Thanksgiving in the US we went out to a local bar with a bunch of my old friends to watch football and the looks of the other men in the bar listening to this woman explain the fundamentals of football to a man were priceless. I do really miss walking with the whole neighbourhood to our towns football stadium to watch the Turkey Day game and then reading out the scores for the last 130 years. It’s also when most people have high school reunions. It’s a chance to catch up with people. I believe the Weds before Thanksgiving in the busiest travel day of the year. Anyway yes the kids stay home so we can FaceTime family while they are celebrating.

Thanksgiving is an important enough festival to Americans to be treated with the same respect as religious festivals, I think. I strongly support children's absences for festivals such as Eid being authorised, so why should absences for Thanksgiving not be similarly treated?

Ah yes, the one thing about Thanksgiving that I dearly with the UK would re-adopt
its not sodding Christmas in early November
Southampton "kicked off Christmas" on Remembrance day

To me, when we lived in the US, Thanksgiving meant visiting family. It wasn't about the food, and the food was nothing to write home about.

Now we are here in the U.K., family visiting is not an option for all of us, so it is just a meal. It's not unlike a Sunday lunch - just with prescribed ingredients. We can have that meal anytime, and have done over the years - Thursday evening, Friday evening, Saturday anytime, Sunday lunch.

Trying to recreate a magical (and mythical, if I am totally honest) Thanksgiving, disappointment can only follow.

I’m surprised your DH’s colleagues take the day off. My DH has worked for a number of US firms in Europe. And Americans posted to Europe didn’t take the day off. Although it was well known as a nice time to get through any backlog as the US wouldn’t be hassling you.

Yeah, I was just wondering, what does one do in Slough or Kettering on Thanksgiving

Phili or NYC or even Hoboken, yup I get it
but Gerrards Cross ?

No one "goes out" on Thanksgiving. It's a hearth & home festival. If you are not with family, it doesn't matter where or when you have it.

Wow, apologies for commenting. Didn’t realise you were seeking opinions only from Americans... (likely assuming they’d have your back I guess...)

Talkin I live in Hoboken. It's dead here on Thanksgiving. Everyone left town last Friday or yesterday. Few stragglers today but town is empty with bars/restaurants shut. The one restaurant that is open is feeding the homeless!

No one "goes out" on Thanksgiving. It's a hearth & home festival. If you are not with family, it doesn't matter where or when you have it.
Who attends the parades then ?

The same type of people that go to the New Year parade in London. Hardly anyone when spread across a whole country.

Parades are in the morning. Then people go home to eat. Plus, the parades only take place in a few cities; I have never lived anywhere in the US where there was a live Thanksgiving Day parade.