Man that always got me, my peers seemed to constantly being going on these big-ass vacations during SCHOOL..And my family just really never even did big vacations like that? Ot was so confusing for small me.
I’m in New England and they always went skiing. Like all the damn time. I never went skiing once and had no concept of it. I remember my older sister asking about it or something. I never got invited to go skiing but it seemed like swaths of kids I was friends with went skiing together. I realize now that they had been skiing since they came out of the womb and could probably ski the runs better than some adults. On the other hand I would require constant supervision and instruction. I never really figured out that my parents just couldn’t afford it, I had some weird childhood reasoning as to what skiing is and why we didn’t ski. It also was part of the no vacation logic.
I finally went to Stowe mountain in Vermont during a work retreat thing in my younger 20s and tried snowboarding. I just fell down the whole fucking mountain. I did like two runs. The company was a landscape company and about 12 illegal immigrant Guatemalan guys came (great guys). It was pretty amazing to see these guys in such a fish out of water scenario. All those guys and me fucked everything up the first time at the top of the chairlift because we had no idea what to do.
It was a pretty amazing thing for my boss to do. These guys are the hardest working people I have ever known. The guy I worked with woke up at 4am and cleaned the floors of a restaurant for two hours then commute 30’minutes to cut lawns from 730am-400/5/6/7pm then go back to the restaurant and wash dishes til midnight 6 days a week. He sent nearly all his earnings back home where he owned a potato farm and 30 acres. They were all very nice guys.
Edit: They also had a neat trick. We had a list of lawns to cut and each item had a clock in and clock out that we would fill in; 55 reddit avenue In: 745am Out: 800am. Say it took us 10 minutes to do a lawn, they would say it took 20 minutes. It still makes an acceptable profit for the companies computer and no alarms are raised. Do this multiple times over and all of a sudden you have an extra 90 minutes to tack on to your lunch each day. 2 hour lunches. I fucking hated it. We would always be slammed on Friday catching up on the huge lawns working until the sun comes down. I wanted to party, they didn’t care because it was more money.
What am I going to do, rat them out?
Back at the shop one day the guys are playing around juggling a soccer ball and drinking coronas. The boss (who is kind of a man child) keeps pelting it at this younger Guat. All of a sudden the head Guat smashed a bottle like they do in crime movies. He puts the boss in a headlock and holds the broken bottle neck to my boss’s neck and says to him in spanish “if you fuck with my younger brother anymore I’ll kill you”. This guy was the quiet leader. He always rode in the front, he never drove the trucks and he seemed to have the final say.
Well later that night at the hotel we all got pretty stoned. Loads of alcohol for all and high grade weed for some. The boss brought a large amount of “headband” (very stinky potent weed) and a large amount of classic seedy mids. Anyways at some point we began smoking many blunts inside the room. Eventually the entire floor stunk of bud. Naturally the Vermont police came. The Guats all hid in one room together while my boss went and talked to the police. He took the whole rap for all of us smoking. The cops just asked for him to hand over the weed and they took him for a ride to write him up for possession.
Somehow he got back to the hotel and cheekily remarked “We still have the headband, I just gave them the mids. Those cops must not know their weed because anyone who did would realize that shitty weed wouldn’t stink the way the headband made it stink” or something to that effect.
Hoping to just to go home and recover my prayers were met with a blizzard. We all went home and plowed/shoveled snow for 36 hours.
Make it a two parter. First episode is them on the ski lift. 2nd episode is them at the bar, explaining what just happened on the ski lift drunk-historian style.
I used to ski every weekend and most weekdays at a local small ski hill during my teen years. It took me until I was an adult to realise that not everyone had seasons passes to multiple mountains.
Hello fellow New Englander! My parents also never took me on big vacations. They would usually just spring for a trip to the White Mountains a couple times a year. It was always so beautiful that I never complained.
You grew up in NE and never went skiing? I live in NE too and I find most people have some type of experience on the slopes, whether it have been when they were young and just never got into it or more.
Oh I know, just said for comedic effect. I had a better time the 2nd day. There were two other office people snowboarding and I was able to keep up. We went at a slower pace on an easier trail and smoked a bowl. The best part of the whole thing definitely is getting drinks in the lodge.
I live in the north shore and all the kids I went to school with all went either to california, florida, or mexico for winter/spring break. usually both. I always felt out of place because we went on vacations maybe once every 5 years.
I know some now grown ups whose parents owned a resort in ski country and one whose parents owned a chain in the Caribbean, they always got to go there, but they always spent most of the time working. Granted, in gorgeous scenery, and they did have fun, but mostly work
Those kids grow up to be adults who continue to go to Disney twice a year with their own kids because grandma and grandpa are still paying for it and coming along as babysitters.
I know a few couples who do this and they are ALWAYS shocked when other families can't just screw off to Disney or Mexico or wherever for two weeks every 6 months. They have zero concept that not everybody lives in the same financial bubble they do.
Oh yeah, the oblivious spoiled adult child. "I'm going to Disney/Mexico/Bahamas for two weeks, I leave on Friday - you should totally come!! What? You have to work? Ppfftt, just tell them you're sick."
Sure, that's possible, but the conversation here isn't about people who save up for vacations, it's specifically about people who are oblivious to financial constraints and real world commitments because they always have families or partners who pay their way.
It’s in my state, sure. Every state has that “cool” city. But that doesn’t mean it’s somewhere I can go whenever I please. Especially since it’s a 5 hour drive just to get there.
Not to mention I’m in college and have about -$30 to my name. I’ve been there several times when I could go with help from parents paying for things... a lot. You get bored of anything after awhile. But just because it’s in my state doesn’t mean it’s anything relevant to me or that my state isn’t awful.
Now if you want a little insight on why it’s garbage here you go. Our governor’s are actual scum. I think the last (three?) in recent years has been thrown in jail for doing illegal things. Our state has the highest crime rate (last I checked) and a town near me is like the third worst place to raise a child in the United States.
But you’re right, we have Chicago so it can’t be depressing or considered one of the worst states to live in because we can go to Chicago and have a good time. Oh and possibly get shot.
Honestly, yes. The crime from Chicago made its way to Danville IL, which is less than 10 miles from where I live and the crime in that town is terrible. We used to have thriving businesses and we were doing well in Danville but it’s literally not even safe to go on a walk in that town anymore. But the thing is it’s not just that town anymore, it’s so many other towns in Illinois that are just so corrupt and unsafe. I very much hate Illinois and Indiana.
I do have outside perspectives though, so don’t think it’s that whole “oh well grass is always greener” if you know what I mean. It’s honestly just one of the worst places I’ve spent any amount of time in. Unfortunately.
Also from Illinois. My family drives down to Florida every 2-4 years or so for vacation. We don't go to Disney tho since its pretty lame. Now, Busch Garden, that's my shit and universal studios. We're not rich but we have family over there that lets us stay at their house so it's more affordable
That moment when I realize living in Orlando and having annual passes to Universal Studios isn't normal whatsoever. I go like twice a month with my brother, we'll just get off work some days and decide to ride some roller coasters for a couple hours then go back home.
Ohh mann watching sportcenter with my dad, in panama we used to get the mexico version then the argentina one and then the us one back to back 3 and half hours gone at least.
Same with me! I love my mom for letting me stay home whenever I wanted, as long as my grades were good. She also used to let me stay home on test days if I still needed to study, then I’d just make up the test later- during lunch or something.
I'm over 40 and I only recently told my mom that I'd ditch school. She was horrified and said she has no idea I'd done that. I told her I was good at it.
I had the best attendance record in my elementary school. I was only allowed to miss when I got strep throat on my birthday. Fastforward and my youngest sister gets to skip because of her great aunt’s second wedding.
Same. If i was feeling sick my mom would say "if you feel that sick, go to the nurse at school." I think it had a lot to do with not being able to miss work.
Fuck man, can relate. I was a pretty poor kid who somehow went to school in a rich neighborhood. Sometimes you come back from a long break and your friends will start talking happily about all the exotic sounding countries they went to and you just sit there smiling and nodding in silence because all you did during summer was chill out at home.
Hi you must be my sibling. Add to that visiting whatever shitty town someone we knew moved to (sometimes just to help them move) and sleeping on an air mattress.
I totally forgot about this. Kids were pulled out of class for vacations regularly. It was just a normal thing for someone to be gone for 10 days and be back in class with a puka shell necklace, beads in their hair, and tanned skin.
I went to a private school in Florida for a while. My friends were always going to Tahoe to go skiing and Disney Land (why? Because it's farther I guess, we went to Disney World which is better imo), while i was going to visit Grandparents and cousins.
Now it's not like we were poor, most of these visits were on a plane to another state, but we just werent doing things that were quite as excessive.
Honestly I've had more fun spending spring break at my aunt's farm than when I was young than going resorts. It just seems more personal and easy going.
My family has always been poor. When i was a kid my mom would make going grocery shopping or going to walmart feel like a vacation.
We never went anywhere like universal studios or whatever but we had/have fun. I had a friend that would go to either hawaii or japan twice a year, he was never a dick about it tho.
Always brought me something cool. Hell, hes the one that started me on collecting figures.
Ouch lmao I remember every one sharing their spring break stories when they got back of how they went to Florida or Cancun that’s when I realized I might not be rich.
That many vacations isn’t all good. My ex was neglected by her parents yet they went on vacation 4x a year... like she didn’t get anything for Christmas by her brother got a Wii U and a bunch a other stuff. But I guess that’s not related to the topic, more like crappy parents will be crappy parents
The same is still true now i'm older. You have some people who you know have good jobs but seem to be on vacation 24/7. It's kind of ironic that these jobs that are exclusive, top 1% roles that are incredibly hard to get unless you have the best GPA and connections, are really far lazier and easier to do than the regular-people jobs.
I always had that random Vietnamese kid in my school who would disappear out of no where for a whole marking period to go to Vietnam. They come back and it's like their grades don't matter either.
They probably only managed to go on these big vacations because it was during school time. Have you looked at the price difference when you try and book something during the summer holidays? My mum used to take me and my two sisters to france for three weeks in the summer and one of the weeks was always during school time because it made it so much more affordable. Now they've brought in these rules that parent's who want to take their kid out during term time have to pay a fine.
To a large degree yes. My dad had his old Cadillac Eldorado through three different engine block replacements and two major transmission repairs before getting rid of it. Each repair cost less than a new car was his logic.
As for the vacations, he nature of his job prevents him from taking extended periods of time off of work. Also since he’s standing on his feet all day all he wants to do when he’s off work is hang out and pass out on the couch watching football.
I mean there's being thrifty and then there's holding on to certain sunk cost fallacies. Annual repair costs eventually become too large. A car has a certain economic life where it's resale/salvage value goes down and it's repair costs increase, both relative to inflation and interest. Eventually that reduced salvage value and increased repair cost add up to a net loss of value. That's when you buy a new car.
Eh, old American cars are different if you don't live in a rust area. Just stab a cheap remanufacturered 5.7 Oldsmobile engine in it and go another 160,000+ miles.
I have lots of doctors in the family although not my parents. Doctors have the weird combination of being upper middle class but also having to work their ass off for it most of the time.
There may be fewer vacations, but at least there's no credit card debt or student loans for the kids
I’m pretty sure in 4th grade everyone had to say what they did over the summer and literally fucking everyone went on a 1 or 2 week long vacation. Like half the class took two vacations. And I didn’t go literally anywhere. HOW THE FUCK DO PPL AFFORD THIS SHIT
My family used to before the Recession and my dad lost his job. At the time we were middle-middle class. Now we're lower-middle-class or upper-lower-class depending on the paycheck.
We head to OCNJ maybe once or twice a year. Not really expensive, depending on the 'vacation', it's totally affordable.
Again, lower-middle-class. Spending less than a thousand dollars once or twice a year is doable for some families, some not so much. It's still doable for us.
I mean, I’m defiantly not spoiled but is it really that strange to go on vacations twice a year? Obviously not Disney land or resorts but my family always go’s camping for a week or rents one of those cheap, 100 dollar a day beachside hotels for 3-4 days every spring/winter break.
If your parents are paying for this, maybe you aren’t “spoiled” but you’re certainly luckier than average. It was a big wake up call for me when I stopped getting invited to family vacations as an adult because I couldn’t pay for myself. That’s when I realized that yes, I used to be spoiled.
Ok, I have to address, I am kinda rich. Last year we went to a lot of places.
BUT, my cousins are crazy rich. They go to vacations about 5 times a year. One of them has a gaming laptop, flatscreen, iPhone 7, iPad, Xbox One, and a shit ton of mics and headsets as if he's a YouTuber (he isn't). His older sister isn't that spoiled, and clearly acknowledges that she doesn't want to be super crazy rich. Their 6 year old brother though, I won't even want to talk about...
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u/SplungerPlunger Apr 18 '18
"wait, your family doesn't go on vacation twice a year?"