Experiences With Your Kids Beat Almost Every Practical Excuse

Practical excuses are endless. Senior-year windows are not.

Bryce is a high school senior. We have homeschooled him since he was little. He is our buddy — in the house, in the businesses, in the rhythm of everyday life. In about ten months he is headed to college. That number sits in my head more than any renewal email or half-built project ever has.

So when Big Bass Bash at Lake of the Ozarks came back around, and he got that look — the SO excited look — the answer was not a spreadsheet debate. It was yes.

Big Bass Bash is not a small yes

If you fish, you know. Big Bass Bash is a big deal — one of those Lake of the Ozarks weekends that feels like a scene. We did it last year. We are doing it again.

Last year I caught one fish in two days. One. Bryce and his uncle Joel caught more, which is both funny and exactly right. Joel is going again. We stay at his house on the lake. Sarah is coming this year too — not to grind the tournament, just to hang. We are stretching the trip into a full week so we can work remote, get away, and actually be with Bryce in the place that is his heaven away from home.

We go to the Ozarks every summer. He loves it. This week is that love plus a tournament plus the quiet knowledge that these versions of “us all together” have a countdown on them.

Is it cheap? No. Flights from Orlando, a rental car, entry fees, a week on the road — it adds up. I am not going to pretend otherwise. I am also not going to let the total become the reason we skip the thing he will remember.

Die with Debt. Not Regret.

That is one of my catchphrases. It is not a finance plan. It is a filter.

I would rather explain a stretch on the budget than explain why we kept saying “maybe next year” until next year was dorm move-in. Debt you can work. Regret sits different. It does not refinance clean.

We have tried to live behind that idea for a long time — not recklessly, not as a slogan for bad decisions, but as a bias toward presence when the window is real. Annual Disney passes in our last Orlando year were the same energy. Say yes to the season you are in. I wrote about that in Why We Got Annual Disney Passes Before Leaving Orlando.

What “practical” usually sounds like

Parents of seniors get a special playlist of reasons to wait:

• College is expensive — we should save every dollar
• Work is busy — bad week to leave
• Travel is a hassle — maybe a shorter weekend later
• He will be home for breaks — we will do something then
• It is just a fishing tournament — not essential

Some of those are responsible. All of them can become a habit of delay. Breaks are not the same as a week on the lake before the house changes shape. A tournament is not “essential” until you watch your kid light up talking about it.

Experiences with your kids beat almost every practical excuse. Not every excuse. Almost every. If saying yes would wreck the family, that is different. If saying yes only wrecks the illusion that later will feel identical, say yes.

Homeschool makes the clock feel louder

When your kid has been beside you for years — school at the table, errands, business talk, the buddy years — the senior stretch hits different. You are not only losing a roommate. You are losing a daily teammate.

That is Ideal Homeschool in real life, not only a brand story. The point was never to win an argument about schooling. It was to build a life close enough that days like this matter. More on that lane lives at Ideal Homeschool.

Ten months is long enough to waste and short enough to feel. We are trying not to waste it on “we should have gone.”

How we say yes without pretending money is fake

A simple parent filter we use:

• Is the window real? Senior year, last summer at home, a season that ends — yes counts more.
• Is he actually excited? Not polite. Excited. Bryce was SO excited. That mattered.
• Can we stretch the trip into time, not only an event? The tournament is the hook. The week is the gift.
• Can work travel with us? Remote days at the lake beat “we cannot leave the office.” That connects to What We're Changing So We Can Work From Anywhere.
• Will we remember the cost or the week? Be honest. Most people remember the week.

Sarah coming to hang matters too. These trips are not only dad-and-son hero arcs. They are family texture — the same care we try to protect when we work together without turning home into a meeting. See Working With Your Spouse Without Turning Home Into a Meeting.

What I want other parents of seniors to hear

You do not need Lake of the Ozarks. You need a yes that matches your kid.

• One trip they will talk about in the dorm
• One week that is not errands and college paperwork
• One thing that costs more than is convenient and less than a lifetime of “we should have”

Audit the noise if you need to — subscriptions, clutter, obligations that do not match the life you want. That is Do a Life Audit Before You Go Location Independent energy. Free up room for the yes. Do not free up room and then still say no out of habit.

Final thoughts

I might catch one fish again. Fine. Bryce gets the lake. Joel gets another weekend with his nephew. Sarah gets to hang. I get a week with our senior before the house gets quieter.

Experiences with your kids beat almost every practical excuse. Die with Debt. Not Regret. Sign me up.