Saturday Night Live completely nailed it last year with the sketch “Goth Kid on Vacation,” which perfectly sums up what it's like to take a grumpy teen to a tropical paradise. Even though he's staying at a beautiful beach resort in Jamaica, he'd rather sit in his hotel room reading graphic novels or playing video games than water ski, snorkel, or, God forbid, get a tan.

The sketch struck a nerve because it's hilarious to see a kid dressed all in black lounging on a deck chair in Jamaica, while also resonating with parents trying to enjoy vacations with teens they can't quite reach. However, while the goth kid appears miserable, child and teen psychologist Dr. Erika Velez says he may still be forming core memories, even when it doesn't appear that way.

Velez says the main reason kids and teens love going on vacation is the time they get with their parents.

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"The things that they tend to mention, especially the younger ones, have more to do with the time that they spent with their parents, and here's what I mean: often it's that they share the room with their parents," Velez says in a TikTok video. "They tend to really enjoy that, and then having their parents' attention through meals, like there is a chance that throughout the school year they're not having breakfast, lunch, and dinner with their parents, and now they are."

Velez adds that even though teens may get moody on vacation, they're still creating core memories that will last a lifetime.

"A recurrent theme that I hear, especially for parents of teenagers, they really wonder, like 'What's the point of bringing these kids along on this vacation, they're complaining the entire time?'" Velez continues. "You'd be surprised at some of the positive feedback that I also get. So I'd like to share that with you all that despite what's happening on the outside, on the inside, when they share these are memories and core memories that you are creating with your family."

Here are some of the comments on Velez's video:

"My 16-year-old always looks so miserable on vacation, but he also always asks when we're going on another one, so I feel like he enjoys our trips together."

"Yes, we took a disaster 2-day road trip, years later my daughter said it was the best."

"I absolutely love this! It's a reminder that making sure my son and I have a little getaway every year."

The pleasant takeaway from Velez's video is that the main thing kids and teens remember after a vacation is spending time with their parents, whether that means a long breakfast or hanging out in bed watching movies at the hotel. It's a great reminder that the destination may not be the most important part of a vacation. The real joy comes from breaking out of our routines and spending quality time with family.

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American kids have fewer school days than most other major countries as it is, which poses a big challenge for families with two working parents. In a system designed for the "classic" stay-at-home mom model, it's difficult for many modern families to cover childcare and fulfill their work obligations during the many, many holidays and extra days off American children receive in school.

Some school districts, in fact, are ready to take things one step further with even fewer instructional days: for better or for worse.

Whitney Independent School District in Texas recently made news when it decided to enact a four-day week heading into the 2025 school year. That makes it one of dozens of school districts in Texas to make the change and over 900 nationally.

The thought of having the kids home from school EVERY Friday or Monday makes many parents break out in stress hives, but this four-day school week movement isn't designed to give parents a headache. It's meant to lure teachers back to work.

Yes, teachers are leaving the profession in droves and young graduates don't seem eager to replace them. Why? For starters, the pay is bad—but that's just the beginning. Teachers are burnt out, undermined and criticized relentlessly, held hostage by standardized testing, and more. It can be a grueling, demoralizing, and thankless job. The love and passion they have for shaping the youth of tomorrow can only take you so far when you feel like you're constantly getting the short end of the stick.

School districts want to pay their teachers more, in theory, but their hands are often tied. So, they're getting creative to recruit the next generation of teachers into their schools—starting with an extra day off for planning, catch-up, or family time every week.

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So far, the data shows that the truncated schedule perk is working. In these districts, job applications for teachers are up, retirements are down, and teachers are reporting better mental well-being. That's great news!

But these positive developments may be coming at the price of the working parents in the communities. Most early adopters of the four-day week have been rural communities with a high prevalence of stay-at-home parents. As the idea starts to take hold in other parts of the country, it's getting more pushback. Discussions on Reddit, Facebook, and other social media platforms are overrun with debate on how this is all going to shake up. Some parents, to be fair, like the idea! If they stay-at-home or have a lot of........

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