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Going to college at 17 or studying abroad is much different than bumming around LA for 2 weeks with no itinerary or adult supervision. I can't believe people are comparing the two.
How are they different? When I studied in France I lived in my own apartment with a friend and no supervision. When I was in college I lived in a house with other students with no supervision...
our 17 year old daughter wants to go away to LA with 2 of her girlfriends for 2 weeks... not sure how I feel about this... we are from NJ, so it's pretty far. Anyone let their kids do this type of trip? I know when I graduated, went to the beach for a week with friends, but that was in my own state (not across the country)...
Well, I am going to be the voice of dissention.
If this is graduation trip, then let her go. I assume she will be 18 fairly soon after graduation, and it isn't as if something magical happens to her on that day to make her a different person.
Just set some clear expectations, one being an itinerary, ground rules about where they will and will not sleep (example truck stop = safe, rest stop = dangerous), how much of a safety fund they will have (including whose credit cards will be used in an emergency), etc.
How are they different? When I studied in France I lived in my own apartment with a friend and no supervision. When I was in college I lived in a house with other students with no supervision...
Well, for one thing -- you had a house.
Again, we're talking about three teenagers who aren't old enough to rent a hotel room.
Again, we're talking about three teenagers who aren't old enough to rent a hotel room.
Might be a NJ thing because the post graduation road trip to LA is getting sort of common.
And, if there is an 18 yo in the group they should be able to rent a hotel room, I know my daughter was able to rent a room in Boston on her credit card when she was just barely 18.
How are they different? When I studied in France I lived in my own apartment with a friend and no supervision. When I was in college I lived in a house with other students with no supervision...
You didn't have an RA or a set of rules that you had to abide by at school? When I said "study abroad" I meant as in a student exchange program where you stay with a host family.
We have "schoolies week" here where it is tradition for younguns to go away and play.
My daughter and her friends went and camped at the beach. My daughter was always the youngest in the class so she was camping with 16-18 year olds. They were fine...no one even got drunk.
Yes I was nervous as hell, being the original helicopter parent, but I don't see why she should be denied something everyone else is doing, just to soothe my own fears.
She's a smart girl, I trust her judgement, she is even more sensible than me at times.
Now she's 20, the fear still hasn't gone away. What if someone snatches her walking down the street? Or stalks her?
I have no control over these things, never did. To think you do, is an illusion. There are risks right outside your front door.
Girls are far more likely to die in a high speed car crash in their boyfriends car, within a mile from home, than they are to be singled out as a target for an abductor, when there's a bunch of them all squealing and giggling and being followed by horny boys everywhere they go.
Have you even been to America or Los Angeles?
For starters you can't rent a car in America unless you're 21 yrs old. So right there is a BIG PROBLEM.
As someone who lived in Los Angeles for 20yrs you really need a car to get around, especially if you are a tourist and want to see things like Venice Beach, Hollywood, or Disneyland..all miles apart from each other.
And to compare camping on the beach to allowing a minor child who hasn't even done any traveling to travel to the other side of the country with two other teens is insane.
It would be different if she was staying with relatives or adult family friends who would be showing them around.
This trip would only really be possible if one these girls had family in LA. They can't rent a car, this isn't NYC or San Francisco where you can stay in a hotel and walk or take mass transit to see the sights, LA has improved mass transit over the years but not to the point where a tourist could get around easily without a car.
Oh, I thought this was a road trip kind of thing, did the OP clarify somewhere?
I think we scared the OP away .....
She DID say that she's decided to nix the trip, but the only details (I believe) were what she said in her opening post -- three teenage girls from New Jersey spending two weeks in Los Angeles on their own.
Location: Los Angeles>Little Rock>Houston>Little Rock
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DewDropInn
Mercy. As a native of So Cal I'd appreciate knowing where all the "overly aggressive weasels" are hanging out. I seem to have missed all the excitement.
A lot of them seemed to be hanging about near my old apartment in Hollywood.
You didn't have an RA or a set of rules that you had to abide by at school? When I said "study abroad" I meant as in a student exchange program where you stay with a host family.
You mean like a curfew? No. No drugs in the dorm. No drinking in the dorm under 21. Neither of those rules were actually enforced btw. But definitely no rules against staying out all night, sleeping at the frat houses, going to sketchy clubs or drinking until you were a complete idiot. Of course I never did that stuff because I was a responsible kid...and I learned that responsibility b y having good parents and being given freedom as I earned it. Now my sheltered roommate used to have to call her Dad three states away when she got in on Saturday nights, of course she got pregnant and dropped out of school by spring of our freshman year.
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