Grab your cup of tea or coffee, sit down, and read this hilarious tale of woe told in a long series of tweets.
Every word rings true.
I went on my share of highschool band trips. Not on a coach, but a school bus. The average age was 16. No different than 10 year olds. Someone puked every week. And everyone farted. It was the most disgusting thing I ever did for no pay.
Wow, that was chillingly awesome.
I once chaperoned a middle school trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It took 90 minutes to get there. They have a special area for school trips where you stage the kids, and that took about 30 minutes, plus lunch. By the time we actually entered the museum the kids had less than 90 minutes before we had to get back on the bus.
What’s worse, the kids had been given a scavenger hunt sort of task where they had to write down certain information from selected displays. To accomplish this, the kids darted around the museum looking at absolutely nothing. I think none of them saw any piece of art at all. Then we went back to the school.
What a waste of time. Would have been more educational if they’d just stayed in the classroom and shown them photos of art.
This makes me so glad I never had kids:D
I don’t doubt it’s the right choice for some, just not me.
I’ve done numerous Girl Scout trips including ones to Wildwood, NJ (several) and Boston.
The one to Boston was a nonissue, really (though as I had a recently-broken foot, there were some activities I couldn’t do). Our bus had a bathroom on it, so there were no issues there. We also had a high adult-to-kid ratio (most of the girls were accompanied by a parent).
The ones to Wildwood: well, mostly the kids were allowed to wander the boardwalk area (in groups) as long as at least one had a cell phone. These were 10-13 year old girls.
Then there was the group of German high school students we took to New York in a van. One host parent stayed with the van but I was the “parent on the ground” who had to be on foot whenever the kids were seeing some sight. Nonproblem except at the very end where several of them wandered away from the meeting spot.
I helped with two different school trips. One to an adventure encounter place (where you do teambuilding / problem-solving activities); I was there to provide one-on-one support for my mildly-autistic 11 year old son. The bus ride was short (45 minutes) and we had no issues. The longer one was a similarly-aged group going to Jamestown, VA, which entailed a 3-hour bus ride. That time, I was in charge of 3-4 girls (I honestly don’t recall whether my own kid was one of them; I expect she was). Aside from the need to track them through numerous outdoor activities, also a non-issue.
Stomach distress was never a problem (by comparison, on a trip to NYC last fall, northbound via bus, southbound via train, my friend got sick on the bus and I got sick on the train).
So: I can’t entirely get the linked tweets. Well, I mean, they’re plausible but I’ve never experienced anything quite so unpleasant.
A gaggle of kids at a large museum seems like a recipe for insanity, as well as no time to learn anything. THAT part, I find QUITE plausible.
When my kids were in school, on several occasions I’d take a day off work to help chaperone a field trip.
A couple of years after my youngest graduated, I ran into one of their teachers. He told me he had been trying to get in touch with me to ask if I’d like to come along on a field trip.
I reminded him my kids were no longer in school. He said, “sure, but you like kids, right?” Nope, I love and like mine, but want nothing to do with anyone else’s. I think that made him sad.
If it’s too good to be true…
I went along several trips with my kids classes and it always went pretty well. One time though the bus driver got lost. We were following the bus in my car and we realized she had missed a turn off so we flagged down the bus and had her follow us.
Note: I dont blame her because she had never been to this place and was given poor directions.
I guess things can go bad but I think some people are just looking for drama to write about.
Last school trip I went on there was a boy that no one would sit with. He looked a little dirty and disheveled, so I volunteered. The boy farted the whole time, and thought it was funny. I’m not saying any kid deserves to be bullied, but some of them sort of ask for it. Maybe it was a medical condition.
Purposefully grossing out or antagonizing other children can be a defense mechanism for disliked kids. It’s sort of similar to how online trolls act.
It’s much more comforting to purposefully repel others than to be ignored and disregarded.
Sometimes when parents talk to me before a field trip, they’ll say things like, “Oh, you get to see a play today? Wish I could go see plays for my job,” or, “You don’t have to teach today, that must be relaxing.”
My answering smile is thin enough to cut tomatoes.
Sounded like a pretty typical field trip to me.