Cheaper Spring Breaks

I started a thread on the Parents board of the College Confidential discussion forum entitled Spring Break Destinations? that generated a lot of response. My purpose was to get parents' reports about where their college students were (or were not) going on spring break. There were some interesting responses, such as, " 'Re: How about home? I don't get this whole Spring Break craze. If my kids have extra money that they could spend on Spring break then they could help to pay off some of their college expenses now...' Agree 100%. I wonder how many of these kids taking spring break vacations are the same ones receiving need-based aid? Just wondering......show of hands, please."

The issue here is the economic hardships being faced by American families who have kids in college. One of the more passionate forum responses that speaks to these stresses states, "I'm with the folks who don't get the Spring Break thing. We parents can't afford to take off work to go on a spring break, but our kids do, with "their" money, ie, the money they have because we don't charge them for their phones/tuition/whatever? My kids wouldn't even ask. They know better. And when I was a college student, my folks would have told me that I had some nerve thinking I'd go off to some beach rather than come home and spend time with the family who has sacrificed their whole lives so that I could go to college. With some exceptions of course, this whole spring break party scene smacks of over-indulged, entitled children."