# A four thousand dollar trip to Europe for a fourteen year old? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 25, 2015, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939 "2015-03-25T14:11:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/81 "2015-03-25T21:02:48Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I was unemployed for 3+ years and I was being foreclosed on, and I never asked here or anywhere else for money. > > Is it too late? That depends on how well the proposal is written. Or will it be a disaster from the first sentence? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/82 "2015-03-25T21:08:51Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That depends on how well the proposal is written. Or will it be a disaster from the first sentence? Does admitting I made a deal with the mortgage holder and I’m not in foreclosure anymore constitute a “disaster”? Though I don’t have to make it the first sentence. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/83 "2015-03-25T21:09:12Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#): > > I’m even more jingoistic than that as I have no desire to travel outside the US. Just as well. You’d get a few hundred yards out from shore and discover that the “horizon” is a matte painting. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/84 "2015-03-25T21:13:59Z")
In the OP’s defense, I’d have to say it’s a much better reason to plea than one from a few years back for air conditioning for gerbils. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/85 "2015-03-25T21:14:28Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > And you want us to chip in to pay for it? Really? > > [Europe is a cool place to visit, right? (donation request) - Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=751930) > > I clicked on this link because the title was originally: > > **Europe is a cool place to visit, right?** > > and I like Europe. Only to find out it was begging thread from mommy so her fourteen year old can have four thousand dollars to visit Europe. Good god are you freaking kidding me with this one? You actually expect people here to give you their hard earned money so your ninth grader can have a nice vacation? WTF? Have you no sense of perspective whatsoever? > > Forget Europe. Bring your daughter to a child’s cancer ward or a homeless shelter. Cheaper and far more educational. > [@running\_coach](#): > > That depends on how well the proposal is written. Or will it be a disaster from the first sentence? Pro-tip: don’t just Copy/Paste from the So You’re Down and Out brochure: > [@](#): > > After the soup kitchen, Emily will travel to skid row where there are so many things to do – including taking a guided tour of the gutters, visiting the City Mission and park benches, the needle exchange, the liquor store, and Fat Abby’s. Emily will take a self-guided walking tour that will lead her by the crack house, cardboard city, the public library, and the courthouse steps. She will make the decision when she is downtown to either to beg outside McDonalds or use that time to panhandle at the bus station (in small groups). ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/86 "2015-03-25T21:17:26Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I was unemployed for 3+ years and I was being foreclosed on, and I never asked here or anywhere else for money. > > Is it too late? Unfortunately it is. I would have helped you but someone I didn’t know wanted a new ultra fast gaming computer for doing his online school work. I had to help him because education is a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/87 "2015-03-25T21:22:57Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > That depends on how well the proposal is written. Or will it be a disaster from the first sentence? > [@Penfeather](#): > > Pro-tip: don’t just Copy/Paste from the So You’re Down and Out brochure: 😕 I was making a reference to a badly written sentence that **Boyo Jim** penned some years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/88 "2015-03-25T21:29:00Z")
My wife and I are successful professionals (her more so.) We’re 32. Last year I was able to take her to Paris, her first “overseas” trip _ever_ … for all of two days. We spent another two weeks in England, and were basically only able to afford the trip because my brother and sister-in-law had asked us to come and stay with them for a week. If I had only known that all I had to do was ask a bunch of mostly-strangers to hand me a stack of money! “Kim will visit Les Invalides, where her husband will fumblingly scrape together 12 Euros to pay for a two ounce salad in the cafe!” ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/89 "2015-03-25T21:35:08Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > 😕 > I was making a reference to a badly written sentence that **Boyo Jim** penned some years ago. Yeah, I was riffing on the itinerary in the Emily thread, which is obviously just C&Ped from elsewhere. I get the feeling that thread will be duplicated word for word on other boards elsewhere, not just MissTee’s Fellow Dopers whom she’s barely spoken to in the last few years: it’s a form letter, basically. No dig at you or **Boyo Jim**. ---
**Author:** ![Helena330](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/helena330/32/531_2.png) [@Helena330](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena330)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/90 "2015-03-25T21:48:05Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > Yeah, I was riffing on the itinerary in the Emily thread, which is obviously just C&Ped from elsewhere. I get the feeling that thread will be duplicated word for word on other boards elsewhere, not just MissTee’s Fellow Dopers whom she’s barely spoken to in the last few years: it’s a form letter, basically. No dig at you or **Boyo Jim**. It was brilliant. You’re killing me in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/91 "2015-03-25T21:57:47Z")
FYI, this is my idea of a worthy charity. [Five bucks](https://secure.globalproblems-globalsolutions.org/site/SPageNavigator/SAL_Donate.html) buys a poor kid a polio and measles shot. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/92 "2015-03-25T22:01:11Z")
You know those vaccines cause Autism right? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/93 "2015-03-25T22:05:30Z")
> [@RobDog](#): > > That’s all fine, but I don’t know what valuable experience they’ll get from the London part of the itinerary. > > The Strand, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Convent [sic] Garden, Piccadilly Circus. Really? > > That’s basically a road, three fucking roundabouts and a glorified shopping precinct with an opera house on one side. Seriously. Totally the most boring circus ever. There were lots of clowns walking around but not a single elephant. ---
**Author:** ![SJL4041](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@SJL4041](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SJL4041)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/94 "2015-03-25T22:37:53Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Seriously. Totally the most boring circus ever. There were lots of clowns walking around but not a single elephant. Well, duh. For that you have to ride the Bakerloo line to Elephant & Castle. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/95 "2015-03-25T23:21:35Z")
When I was in high school, the big school-sponsored trips to Europe were for seniors (or maybe juniors) and were only for a week over spring break. On the other hand, this trip is for three weeks in the summer and of course the student is a freshman. (BTW, how many parents do you know who would permit their fourteen-year-old daughter to go on such a trip without them, even if there are chaperones?) I think the daughter should wait until she’s a senior and then go, after raising much of the money herself. (And the OP describes the trip as a “unique opportunity.” It’s not; similar trips will be available next year or the year after.) ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/96 "2015-03-25T23:44:29Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > FYI, this is my idea of a worthy charity. [Five bucks](https://secure.globalproblems-globalsolutions.org/site/SPageNavigator/SAL_Donate.html) buys a poor kid a polio and measles shot. > > 🙂 Or for $20 you can cover diarrhoea and pneumonia as well. Which I just did. Thanks for the link. See? The ‘trip to Europe’ thread wasn’t silly! It may have saved a life! ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2015, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/97 "2015-03-25T23:58:48Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > We donate to a variety of charities every year and take the tax deduction. A valid charity is one thing, but crowd sourcing is just panhandling under a different name. The whole notion of it just rubs me the wrong way. I really don’t understand anybody giving money so that somebody else can use it to leverage their start-up business (but not have to pay back the loan), let alone use this method to get money for frivolous activity like this trip to Europe. That this has become a ‘thing’ just astounds me. Who raises people this stupid? Well, in most crowdfunding cases, the donors actually GET something out of it: seeing the movie made, first crack at the product, extras, whatever. Not, say, paying for someone else to have all the adventures and memories and experiences and getting bupkis in return, ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/98 "2015-03-26T00:31:30Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > You know those vaccines cause Autism right? I thought it was the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/99 "2015-03-26T00:33:59Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > y’know, this is no different than the local high school (marching) band having a fundraiser for a trip. > > and the nice thing about “crowdfunding” is that if you don’t agree with what someone’s asking for money for, you can- get this- _ignore it._ if enough people agree with you, they won’t raise any money and they’ll get the message. Except, if we keep getting crappy, “fund my special totally-not-necessary-luxury project” threads, it makes people hesitant, I would imagine, to start threads asking for legit things, like someone is about to get kicked out of their home, and needs a loan for a month’s rent. Or you have a sick kid, and you’re trying to raise funds to cover a medical expense. Little Emily wants to see the changing of the guard? [Here you go](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPsTqfqfPIY) Free of charge! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2015, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939/100 "2015-03-26T00:51:00Z")
The last kid who walked up to my house and asked me to fund her soccer trip to Hawaii got nothin’ either. I couldn’t believe it. Mow my lawn, rake my leaves, wash my dog, wash my car, or something. SELL THE CHOCOLATE. Whatever. Give me something for it. The entitled young cheerleader then sneered at me, when I refused her, guessing that I was living off of social security or something otherwise of course I would love to give her money. At least on the internet when you don’t give, you don’t get sneered at. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-four-thousand-dollar-trip-to-europe-for-a-fourteen-year-old/715939.md?page=6)