Should Parents be Able to Pull Their Kids out of School Anytime to go on Holiday??
Should Parents be Able to Pull Their Kids our of School Anytime to go on Holiday?
My husband is self-employed. He owns a fleet of trucks used primarily to lay asphalt. When they aren’t carting asphalt they sub-contract to plant hire companies and cart earthworks. And the slowest months of the year are ALWAYS in winter. Asphalt can’t be laid when it’s raining and trucks get bogged in clay soil at construction sites unless the ground is dry. We pray that we are busy the rest of the year and work around the clock when we can to make sure we have enough put aside in those leaner months.
And for those reasons it’s been impractical to take time away from the business when it’s busiest so we escape to the north for sunshine when it’s the quietest. And that’s usually when there’s no school holidays. And it wasn’t too tricky to navigate when they were in primary school and the excuse of “they will learn things on the road” is actually a pretty good one. Not that we ever bothered, but theoretically we could have gotten them to research and write about a new destination and present the report when they got home!
Of course this gets more complicated the older they get when the pressure to study and do well on exams becomes more intense but we usually managed to wrangle it (often copping a few lectures and stern looks though from some of their teachers).
The fact is – kids have three months off school during the course of a year and most parents should be able to find time to slot in around those three months. The problem is – parents only have 4 weeks off so the times have to match up AND it’s bloody well way more expensive to do ANYTHING during school holidays. Airfares, accommodation and caravan parks all put their prices up.
But in Tasmania, they are cracking down on this and any parent that removes their kids from school to go on holidays could be faced with fines or even legal action.
Some would say that if you decide to have children, then you need to put your own selfish needs aside (like ours) and be completely selfless and do what’s best for your kids and make sure they attend school at every opportunity less they miss out on some critical learning.
What do YOU think?
Carolyn Murphy
Carolyn Murphy is a married mother of three and regularly provides us with recipes and strange but true stories about her life. When she’s not here, she can also be found on her website pinkpostitnote.com where all her other recipes are located!
