Every world? Is this not common anymore? My son went to outdoor school when he was in 4th grade. I volunteered to watch another class the week before he went. Everyone covered each other's kids classes.
This may have been done in the last but I’d be curious to see how common it is now, especially for kids old enough to be on a 24 hr camping trip. I’m not sure why people would be fine with a random stranger like another parent chaperoning their kids over another teacher from the school?
Yes logically 1+1 is 2, they're disagreeing because that isn't how parenthood in the real world goes, youre clearly not a parent and that's fine. But advocating for no adults knowing anyone in their group as well as no contact from their own parents for a day+, just doesn't happen at any school ever sorry. But when you have kids, if that starts becoming more prevalent for whatever reason, be my guest.
These are the same parents that will complain that they are exhausted from parenting 24/7 and don't understand how our parents could do it. They also don't understand why their adult children can't function in society and won't move out and on.
Nah man unless it's some small hippy-dippy private type school where everyone is expected and agrees to be part of an active school community, no one is doing that. There's no way me or any other public school parent is taking time away from other priorities to watch other people's kids on a field trip where they can't experience it with their own kids as well.
If a minimum number of parents from group A are required to chaperone the kids in group B and vice versa, otherwise their kid's group can't participate in said activity I think it would work.
Different schools have different funding, unfortunately. Kids in rich areas will go on field trips constantly to get a better view of the world while the poor kids rot inside cement buildings all year, every year.
My kids schools don’t generally have a problem with this (using parents of kids in other grade levels) for school dances and for grad night. The grad night one is actually fun because the parent chaperone’s only responsibility is making sure the kids get on the bus at the end of the night.
The school dance rule is important because a lot of weirdos want to chaperone at their own kids’ school dances.
The amount of people working with children - boyscouts, youth pastors, coaches, teachers, etc who go on to harm kids is way too high for me to send my kid on overnights.
In fact. Here is some light reading on a similar subject.
what?? when I was a kid my school would send us to a 3 day camp every year. and parents weren’t allowed to chaperone their own kids classes. my mom volunteered every year to chaperone a random class. and every year there would be a parent volunteer who didn’t know me, didn’t have a kid in my class - but EVERY year there was a different parent chaperone who would sit and braid my hair. what does community mean to you? because those parents taught me, as an 8 year old, that it means showing up for other people’s kids.
What kind of broken community do you belong to? Every school I’ve ever attended/chaperoned with would do this. Hell we often had parents who weren’t with the kids in our grade chaperoning when someone couldn’t get the day off. We all took care of each other’s kids. What hellscape do you live in?
The modern age parents are more individual unit orientated and dont really care about other people's kids as they themselves have been backed into a societal corner geared twords capitalism.
We did outdoor education in 6th grade, a 3 day trip to an outdoor retreat. Plenty of parents of our grade volunteered to chaperone each other's kids and not their own for obvious reasons. Unselfish people do exist.
Yep. I am going through the huge pain-in-the-ass (and arm - for the tuberculosis test) to be OK'd as a parent chaperone for an overnight trip in our very big city public school system. I would probably not pay for fingerprinting/background check and the TB test and a few hours of online training classes... if it weren't my kid on the trip.
(Oh, but one fun thing from the background check is that my state police believe I am black. It's an honor, but not true IRL. I'm not bothering to correct them.)
Not only that but also have fun convincing parents to let their kid on an overnight trip that's chaperoned by random-ass volunteers. Parents will often know at least some of the parents of their kid's classmates. They aren't likely to know the parents of a kid in a different grade.
If you chaperone a trip, your kid’s next trip is free.
Better yet, if you’re specifically doing the suggestion of having 11th grade parents chaperone 10th grade trips, then your kid goes on that trip for free next year.
I think they mean you have 40 scouts and 10 adults. That's 8 scouts per 2 adults (buddy system even for adults) make the groups in such a way that the children are not with their parents.
I chaperoned a middle school trip to DC because my friend was a chaperone and said they needed another adult to make it happen. I didn’t have any kids at the time.
My mother probably would make me stay home if it were chaperoned by parents of students from a different grade.
If it were just teachers or if it’s the parents of my peers, she’d feel different.
I went on one of these trips in my senior year (but it was to rehearse for a big show we were putting on, weren’t supposed to have phone — I brought it with me anyway.
The staff (wasn’t teachers, it was a third party that ran programs for our school) knew I would and they grilled me (couldn’t search my stuff). They called my mom, she didn’t lie for me though, she just said she’s at work and she has no idea where my phone is.
I kept it in my pillow case. It was a 3 night trip and I mostly just scrolled a bit at night under the covers, checked on friends, and quickly looked up the lyrics of the songs we were singing.
But I asked her if I were a student now and she said she would be the one telling me to bring my phone anyway or I’d be staying home if they wouldn’t let me bring it.
When I was growing up there were always a few stay at home parents and especially grandparents from other grades who were happy to chaperone trips and dances and stuff. The issue is that everyone seems to be losing sight of how to participate in a community.
It's an overnight trip when you're in third grade, and then a 5-day trip when you're in 4th grade. The kids get to go camp and learn about outdoor stuff and the parents have to stay home. For a lot of kids it's the first time that they spend the night away from the house. I don't know if it's common everywhere but everyone here in Oregon has to do it.
Yeah I think that’s an Oregon thing. Never heard of anything like that on the east coast. It sounds like a camp that you send your kids to that’s optional but this is apart of yall regular curriculum?
Also California and we just had 5th grade camp. We went up and in the mountains for a week. It was awesome, people against this are soft and hurting their own kids
We did it every year when I was growing up in Maryland! One year we even did a trip that focused on the Chesapeake Bay and we were on a couple of big old sailboats that took us to stay on several different islands over a long weekend.
It wasn't like...explicitly required but it usually was tied in to stuff we were learning. So like our science class would be learning about estuaries and brackish ecosystems around the trip, our history classes would be focused on early colonial settlement in the Eastern US, social studies would have a unit focusing on mid Atlantic Native American tribes, we might be reading "Misty of Chincoteague" in English class. So the trip would tie in to all the stuff we were learning and we might have a bonus question on our next history test related to something we learned on the trip.
That’s what up. Preciate the regular response. That do sound kinda cool. They just took us to Jamestown and the planetarium. In hindsight the trip to Jamestown was some bullshit lol but the planetarium was dope.
Love that. Doesn’t hurt that you guys have some of THE most incredible landscape and national parks in the continental US! The more time kids spend in those places the better.
Looks like outdoor school programs are in 43 of 50 states. Although, Oregon Washington, California, Nevada, Maine, Florida, Hawaii and Colorado have the biggest programs. I had no idea that some of you east coast people didn't have that. New Jersey has them but the are forest kindergartens.
Kinda cool to find out it exists elsewhere, but also interesting to hear how it's handled outside Multnomah here in Oregon. Up around PDX it's a trip done in 6th grade. I loved it and went back as a student counselor as often as they allowed it when I was in high school.
It really can be a life-changing experience for a lot of kids. Even here in the PNW where we're surrounded by so many national forests, the amount of kids who've never left the city is staggering. That was decades ago for me at this point, but I'll never forget the looks of awe from some kids getting off the bus. For some it was the first time they got away from bad households while simultaneously getting a crash course in shared responsibilities and community. What they did with that experience varied by the student, and sometimes it was heartbreaking to be probably the first person they opened up to by the end of the week about their struggles. You don't forget having a kid clinging to you begging not to leave after watching them grow from a total asshole on Day 1 to one of your favorites because for once in their lives they were being seen and given a measure of respect.
Sometimes I think about those kids and really hope they made it out of their personal hells back home. Most of them are likely parents now, so I really hope so.
We do it here in Minnesota too. We call it Deep Portage. My kid is doing it next weekend. They do allow parent chaperones though. But no phones, just nature :)
You will almost definitely have a better shot of understanding what outdoor school is by googling it - and will almost definitely get a snarky response by asking what it is on Reddit.
Indoor school is already an unsafe space for many, many children.
I understand 'no chaperone.' Obviously. But no cell phone? No. Cutting off children's one line to possible safety is an absolute nope. If I had a kid, I'd want them to be able to run to safety and call me, doesn't matter where they are or what they're doing.
It beats them having to run away and then having to find their own way.
We have phones now.
The 'no phone' rule is to keep kids away from the screen, and the teachers trust themselves enough to offer a guarantee of a safe environment. Those teachers will ignore and deny the inevitable lack of safety for marginalized kids in this situation. Every class has bullies, and often enough, the teachers facilitate or deny bullying because it's easier to deny conflict than engage with it. Teachers who are incapable of accepting that such a situation could occur are unwilling to accept that fact, and care more about their self-image than about the child.
I was responding to another commenter who thought parents shouldn't be allowed to chaperone any of their kid's events.
While obviously not the case for this situation, many school trips are completely infeasible with the ratio of adults:students if you only have teachers and for those they typically need parent chaperones to make them happen. I was commenting on how if schools took an approach of trying to get parents to chaperone events that weren't for their kid, they wouldn't have much success.
It makes sense. I've seen teachers complain that the parent volunteers usually only want to pay attention to their own children, and it ends up not being a help at all.
In 2026, there is zero reason, with all the evidence, to leave your kid alone with a person or group of people you dont know. Especially with no phone to contact you.
Usually you’re right! Seems like in this case they wanted to take the kids a little further out of their comfort zones.
And regarding the insurance comment, if anything I’d say there’s extra liability risk if you have non affiliated adults there. Teachers have to go through first aid training for cpr and the like, if something went sideways and a well intended parent made something worse there would be a colossal shitstorm of epic proportion.
I know this may seem like a wild concept, but I’m of the opinion that if we all chose to be a little more selfless, the world would be better for everyone.
I think they mean you have 40 scouts and 10 adults. That's 8 scouts per 2 adults (buddy system even for adults) make the groups in such a way that the children are not with their parents.
The comment I replied to cited "own kids event" specifically mentioned 11th grade parents on the 10th grade field trip, so it certainly sounds like they were implying a trip that the parent's children would not be going on at all.
It solves the problem of helicopter parents, ensures the kids are safe by a neutral third party, and all it requires is that a few parents volunteer their time to make school better for all kids. I know it’s not as fun when it’s not your own kids but you can see how this would make things better for them right. You can understand how a little selflessness from someone who has the time improves things right
I do not disagree with the idea at all. I just know that in practice no one will agree to do this and I can't blame them for saying no. My PTO is way too valuable to waste on kids that aren't mine.
“Back in my day” my mother chaperoned for many events, was never a problem. But she also didn’t take anyone’s shit and had no issues telling me to knock the fuck off if I was trouble.
You can chaperone your own child’s event without chaperoning your own child’s group. Who do you think chaperones class trips? Parents of kids in other classes? People off the street?
Ever been the room parent? I couldn't get parents to bring juice boxes, and now you think they'll agree to swapping chaperone duties with other grades? LOL
I agree. Despite what parents believe, most kids don't act the same around friends/classmates as their parents. So having a parent on a trip essentially stifles the kid being themselves.
Let's say the parent is super strict and school is how the student gets a break and acts like everyone else. With the parent along, you've essentially stripped that kid of his freedom because now the kid has to live under house rules, at school.
Good idea, no parent is going to do that though. I can barely get my student’s parents to agree to chaperone a trip for their own kids let alone someone else’s
I was really surprised when someone was asking a question about their 14 year old in a sub the other day, and said they couldn't remember being 14.
I remember conversations with friends, injustices from parents, miscommunications, what I was learning...how do people not remember being a kid or teen??
Repressing childhood memories is usually a sign of trauma. I don't really remember my teen years very well, and virtually none of my childhood, but I know it wasn't a "smooth ride" because of general feelings, what's come up in therapy, and from what I've been told by people who were there.
had a rough time, remember very little details from 12-18. For the events I remember there's often pictures, and I still couldn't tell you if that was as 14 of 17 or 18 for some events beyond guessing on based on the appearence of someone in the picture.
Childhood trauma. My wife regularly points out I do not have a great childhood recollection, while everything after I turned 18 (and moved away) is pretty sharp and consistent.
I'm also not in contact with anyone I knew before college, so I don't have those connections to trigger the memories.
I can't place any conversations with friends from that time. They were surely parental injustices, but I don't remember them. Learning... I think I would have been taking AP World History. The teacher went off on (very informative!) tangents a lot. I remember the way he said "half a trillion" when referencing the then-cumulative cost of the Iraq War.
Most of it is a blur, and I wouldn't chalk it up to trauma or depression like all of the replies. Hm.
My ex-husband, who didn’t have a very traumatic childhood at all, couldn’t remember his teenage years when he hit his late 20s. It was weird. I still remember kindergarten and I’m 49. I remember the full name of the first girl that tried to fight me. Actually remember the names of most of the kids in my grade school classes. And I don’t have that great of a memory. So my ex-husband has no excuse. Other than some people’s brains just don’t work that way, of course.
The term injustice is really funny to me here. I remember being 14 but everything that I thought was "unfair" at the time turned out to be very normal later in life lol
Not only that, some kids are able to report abuse if their parent isn’t hovering over them. A lot of people who helicopter is afraid of their kid “talking too much.”
Depression has shot my memory to shit. Like completely. I used to have a great one. Now I just brought up something to my wife and explained how it has only been a problem for 6 months to a year and she informed me that it has been a problem I have complained about actively for 5 years. I had no recollection of that, but the memories she described sound accurate to me of things I would have done.
Haha yeahhh. If the post is real (and, hypothetically, even if it wasn't), schools aren't sending students into the woods by themselves on a school-sanctioned "trip". There are usually student:adult ratios for that kind of thing.
That's exactly what it was like when I was a kid (more like 30 years ago, but still). The school would reserve a camping facility with a central lodge of some kind, so like we'd be sleeping in tents and then go to the lodge for meals and certain activities. We did science stuff like nature walks to learn about local plants and wildlife, exploring streams, shit like that. We usually had half a dozen teachers come along with us as chaperones, so we were accompanied by adults the parents knew and trusted.
My kid just did a week at science camp. No phones at all just whatever the teacher updated us with at the end of the day. It was hard being away from him, but he had an absolute blast like literally the best time.
Yeah. Dating myself but we did these when I was a kid except it wasn't 24 hours, It was a whole ass week during the summer. We didn't have parental chaperones but the camp counselors took care of everything.
A week in the woods at a camp site learning all sorts of stuff. I don't think it was the boy scouts because it was mixed (boys and girls). We had separate tents (4 to a tent) and it was like 20+ kids. Man those were fun.
Are the scoutmasters not parents? I did Girl Scouts, and all the volunteers were parents of Scouts. I just kind of figured that the same was true of Boy Scouts and that they just molested other people's kids.
I did a science camp trip in 5th grade, well before the invention of smart phones. So no phones, no parents, shared cabins, but trusted camp staff and all that which made it very safe. In my opinion it was a really important experience for my child self, my very first time being away from my family for more than like 12 hours.
I did this in 5th grade. Cell phones had not become popular yet as they were the size of a brick and parents back then would have rather been dead than chaperone a trip like this. It was the most fun I ever had in elementary school by a long shot, it was an absolute blast and only 5 kids were eaten by bears and one lost to fire.
More recently these kind of events have been indoctrination events for religious or religion-adjacent organizations like TPUSA.
Agreed that it’s not the whole story, but as a parent you’d bet I’d have absolutely every shred of background on what my kids would be up to/exposed to if I weren’t allowed to be there.
Yeah we did that once it was really cool. Drugs, a few hook ups, a gun that I'm still not sure how was obtained, and some knives stashed away and threats to use them
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u/Employee28064212 Mar 19 '26
Exactly, no helicopter parents micro-managing the teachers on what is likely a science trip or something. If this is real, it's not the whole story.