daughter's group of six wants to go to goa after the boards next year. one parent has already found a homestay and wants a deposit from each family by next week so they can 'lock the dates' the exams are five months away. she has not made a revision timetable but the goa spreadsheet has four tabs im not against the trip as such. im against deciding it in september. how do i say not now without it turning into a whole thing
A deposit in September for a trip in March or April would make me uneasy too. Could you agree to the idea and push the money to January, after the pre-boards? She hears a yes to the trip, and you get to decide closer to the time when you know how the year is going ❤
January is sensible, though the organising parent may not wait, and then she's the one left out of the booking. I'd still rather lose a homestay than have a deposit hanging over the exam months, but it is a real cost to her either way.
Is the parent who found the homestay going along, or is it six seventeen-year-olds on their own? That would change my answer more than the timing would. Ours is fourteen, so I may be getting ahead of myself, but I'd want to know before discussing deposits.
Mine is only 11, so this is years away for us, but I can already picture the spreadsheet. Maybe ask her to add a tab for the revision plan and show you both together? Half joking. Not completely.
There are two questions here. Whether she can go is a family decision you can make later. Whether you pay a deposit now is a money question, and 'we don't pay six months ahead for something that isn't confirmed' is a fair rule that isn't about her at all.
Six months is a long time for a group of six. Some of them may not be speaking to each other by March. I would simply wait.
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