So, imagine you took someone's child away with you on a vacation. All food and other stuff was covered. But you told the child's parents to give the child spending money for 3 weeks....the length of the vacation. How much would you give your child? How much would you give him or her if you were well off? A family member of ours brought a boy for 3 weeks to Myrtle Beach. His parents gave him $20 for spending money, and they did not offer to pay for anything. I can't imagine not offering to pay for ANYTHING, even if no money was asked for. Maybe it is just my wife and I, but if someone took my kids to a beach for 3 weeks, I would offer the other parents $500 per kid for paying for meals at restaurants, and I would give my kids another $500 for spending money. I know that the people who brought the child go out to eat for 50% of their meals when on vacation. 3 weeks.... $20?????? And the family is not poor. They send 2 kids to private school. ( the family who sent the boy is not poor. The family who took him are just solid middle class folks. They are my in laws, and they definitely are not rich )
I'd like to think they believe in your in-law's financial capacity and wouldn't mind doing the same favor. It would have been reassuring if the parents directly made an offer from the start but that's over. Bring up that issue next time especially if it was troublesome. They might have had things on their busy mind and forgot about a budget. No clear intention leaves you with your own assumptions. Your rules. Your choice to splurge or hide your wallet. Maybe $20 was training for the kid in spending when in an environment away from his parents or a message to keep things down to earth cheap. Travel now, pay later. Some just do things that way. It's not too late to send them the bill anyway. "Kid was great. Had fun. By the way, here are the expenses. *breakdown* -complaints here-. ____ is on me. Will be out of the country next month, leave our kids and dog with you?" Up to your in-laws if they want payback in cash or in kind. If it's worth the connection, it could be wise investing the time and money on the boy's family. They're not poor right?
It's a tough one, and it depend on what was said exactly to the kids parents, you say in the first paragraph that food and stuff was covered so if this family were told, " hey can we take xxxx on hols with us, food and everything is already paid for for so he'll only need a littlespending money" etc etc then they can't complain when money has not been sent for food. Yes it would have polite to offer but not necessary if they were told it was already paid for. In fact we recently offered to take my daughters friend on holiday with us, as it on,y cost an extra £100 for a second child, food and drinks covered in the £100 and everything else would have been picked up by us and I clearly told mum this as I didn't want the reason they said no to be that they can't afford it, the inly thing the child would need is a bit of spending money, for souvenirs and stuff. Now in this case £20 would have been enough for our stay as there isn't much you buy other that sweets, so she'd have struggled to spend it, but even it wasn't enough for our stay, I'd have a moan to my husband but wouldn't ever say anything to her parents, I'd just pick up whatever she wanted when they ran out of money. But we'd have factored this in when booking the holiday so would have budgeted anyway for it. Spending money to me covers magazines, personal bits, souvenirs and stuff, if it's a case of one family thinks spending money is for jet rides etc then I can see why it wouldn't be enough and cause problems. So in short I think they should have sent more spending money with the kid! If he had run out then a phone all, text etc home telling parents he's ran outand should we loan him xxxx would have fixed it. But I don't think it's reasonable to say food is covered and then complain that they haven't offered or sent any money for food...
I think $20 is too low but also $500 is too high. As it's just 'spending money' I'd say $50 a week is quite adequate.
I agree with you but if your friend didn't say anything then it's their fault. When they were given $20 why wouldn't they say anything ? Not even a remark about that's not much etc !?
I don't know if they were given the money or if the kid had the money with him. I would hope that if the money was given to the adults that they would have said something. If not, then I would put the "fault" squarely at their feet. But in any case, who gives a kid about 95 cents a day for spending money? You can't even buy a soda in McDonald's for that. I think ice cream vendors on the beach are at least 2 or 3 bucks per item.
I'd keep the money and drown him tbh. Jokin jokin. I think 90-100 bucks per week is enough. I live in Paris and that's what cost me per week. Donno where you're based but I'm positive it will be lower than that.
Yeah I'd be in the camp that thinks $20 is too little and $500 is way over the top, but a lot of it depends on the type of holiday it is.
