Why is MLK weekend so busy?

[Brett Wyman]

Thats "winter break" for our entire area. Our schools have the entire week off, not just 3/4 day weekend.

 

[DisLiss]

I think 3 days weekends are kind of rare...

Until quite recently they were exceedingly rare for my kids. They went to school on Indigenous Peoples' Day (former Columbus Day), Veteran's Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day until just 2 years ago. It's just the last 2 years that they've had Veteran's Day & MLK day off. Before that they would have special programs, assemblies, lessons, etc. on those days instead.

Even now we still do not get a Spring Break. We get only one day off at President's Day, and we get 2 days off at Easter if we're lucky. If Easter is late and the weather has been bad, then we often lose our 2nd Easter day to making up a snow day. Which is probably why our school district is pretty lenient in granting vacation requests for students, because we have precious little time during the year to do so based on the calendar alone.

 

[Allison]

Nothing makes it so special, they are all busy and there aren't that many of them.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

 

[Brett Wyman]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

A LOT of people are in driving distance. So 3 day weekends make sense to them. Also some districts gets this entire week off.

 

[SaintsManiac]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

3.5-4 days is my sweet spot. It’s why I loved having APs.

 

[DGsAtBLT]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

If I lived in a place where I could get there quickly, often, and (relatively) inexpensively, I would definitely take advantage of 3 day weekends.

....and 2 day weekends, if we’re being honest

 

[kylenne]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

I used to think this way too until I got an AP. Things feel a lot different now. I know when I’m coming back for a big trip so I’m never stressed out over not having enough time, and I don’t feel compelled to do everything ever. Flights are plentiful from NYC so it’s easy to score a cheap one on points. I went for 4 days over Vets Day weekend and it was probably one of the most relaxing trips I’ve had. As a civil servant even if holidays fall on a weekend day, we get the “observed” day off anyway with pay, which stretches our weekends out a lot, so I plan to take advantage. July 4th is like that this year.

 

[paisleys]

I'm in FL and our county schools were closed yesterday so we had a four day weekend. Since we only live a couple of hours away, 2 days is enough but 4 days is a Mardi Gras of a trip!

 

[Nancyg56]

I think that it is not a 3 day weekend for a lot of schools. Our area had either 1/2 on Friday or no school at all, using it as a teachers workday, and extending the weekend. If parents wanted to use the Holiday to take a vacation they could actually extend it if their kids could afford the time, or just leave Thursday after school and come home Monday night.

 

[MDIME]

Also, a lot of schools are in-between semesters. For our district, they have 2 days of finals, then teachers in-service days bookend the weekend, this making a 3-day weekend into a 5-day weekend.

 

[xipotec]

Until quite recently they were exceedingly rare for my kids. They went to school on Indigenous Peoples' Day (former Columbus Day), Veteran's Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day until just 2 years ago. It's just the last 2 years that they've had Veteran's Day & MLK day off. Before that they would have special programs, assemblies, lessons, etc. on those days instead.

Even now we still do not get a Spring Break. We get only one day off at President's Day, and we get 2 days off at Easter if we're lucky. If Easter is late and the weather has been bad, then we often lose our 2nd Easter day to making up a snow day. Which is probably why our school district is pretty lenient in granting vacation requests for students, because we have precious little time during the year to do so based on the calendar alone.

This is such a shame. Childhood goes so fast, and like our jobs these days, more and more time is being taken away from the family.
Higher productivity, higher testing scores for what really?

I do not feel any better abouy my life if the GDP is strong or some random metric scores for education are higher.

our society is really getting out of control witg work life balance....

 

[Disneylover99]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

3 days might be a tease to you, but it’s a fix to others.

I could never justify flying down for 2 nights, but 3 nights, with cheap airfare and an AP? I’m down!

 

[mdsouth]

A lot of people look to plan their vacation around a three day weekend so that they have one " extra" day off without having to lose another vacation day they can use later or one less day their children will miss from school. And as others have said, many school districts connect a teacher workshop day to that weekend too so students would only be missing three school days, yet for those planning they would have ten days off between their first Saturday and then through the Sunday and Monday of the MLK holiday.

 

[DisLiss]

This is such a shame. Childhood goes so fast, and like our jobs these days, more and more time is being taken away from the family.
Higher productivity, higher testing scores for what really?

For us it's all about our start date and the weather. In order to stick to the schedule that families around here are used to (We start school in Sept., not August.) and still get in our required amount of days, we have to transfer a lot of possible days off to snow days in our calendar. When we have a year that it surprisingly mild, then the kids get out of school earlier, but that's pretty rare. Typically we do need those snow days. Many area schools have started going back earlier and earlier, to get around the problem, but we've stuck to the same start date we've been using for generations. Many people schedule late summer vacations due to this tradition--including us. This year we'll be at Disney in early September because our kids won't be in school yet. So while it may be a bit of a bummer to not have those days during the year, we do take advantage of our schedule in other ways.

 

[DisLiss]

I’ve never understand the 3 day weekend disney crowds. Yes it’s a long weekend but if I’m going to Disney, I need to be immersed in the magic at least 5-7 days. 3 days is a tease

I think if you're lucky enough to go often, the 3 days is nice. You can have an Epcot trip and a MK trip, etc. and really immerse yourself in one park; or you can try to do fun little challenges like getting a certain list of attractions across the parks into your trip; or you can focus on characters one trip, or resorts.

If you're going once a decade or something like that, than yep, I'd definitely want more than 3 days, too.

 

[KrazeeK120]

A LOT of people are in driving distance. So 3 day weekends make sense to them. Also some districts gets this entire week off.

I’m guessing most districts don’t have the whole week off. I mean, they literally just had a 2 week break.

 

[gharter]

As others have posted, every 3 day weekend is busy.
Around us, they have Friday as teach inservice and Monday off, so a 4 day weekend, so if Disney were close, many more would be there.

 

[AngiTN]

I’m guessing most districts don’t have the whole week off. I mean, they literally just had a 2 week break.

yeah, kids here have only been back for 2 weeks, if that. Didn’t return till Wed, 1/8 so no extra days beyond Monday. And they’d had 3 weeks off

 

[kylenne]

It’s weird how MLK day is treated here. Public schools get it off and it’s observed by the city (non-essential employees at my agency have it off). But our city university system doesn’t get the day off. Unfortunately that means I have to work because the new hire class I’m training right now is through our agency’s college internship program. If it was a regular full time class I would be off because training is considered support staff. At least I get time and a half and comp for it.