Florida mom goes viral for defending decision to let kids skip final week of school

“I don’t see the point,” Patricia Horton said in the video. “Most of the teachers would rather you keep your kids home anyway.”

Horton, who has two children aged 7 and 12, explained that her parenting approach differs from how she was raised. She recalled that her parents insisted she attend school every single day until the very end, allowing absences only if she was sick or had a doctor’s appointment.

Now, as a parent herself, Horton believes the final days of school are largely unproductive and are only for students to perform meaningless tasks.

“I have cleaned a lot of desks,” she said of her own experiences as a student on the final days of school. “That is what we did the last week of school when I was a kid. We cleaned desks, and we cleaned classrooms, and I was a professional at cleaning desks.”

“I’m not doing that with my kids,” she added. “Stay home, baby, it’s summertime. Time to go.”

Horton said teachers have been supportive of her decision.

“They always say, ‘It’s been great teaching your kid, and I hope you have a great summer,’” Horton explained to TODAY. “It’s never, ‘Oh no, you’re not going to come?’ They totally understand.”

She also made clear that her children have the option to attend school if they want to. “If my kids want to go to school, they are absolutely welcome to go,” she added. “If they want to stay home, I’m not going to make them go to school to sit there and maybe watch a movie.”

Reactions to her video have been mixed. Some viewers, including a teacher, criticized the decision, noting that students who skip the last few days miss out on a chance to say goodbye to classmates and teachers. Others defended the decision, with another teacher admitting that the remaining days of school are essentially “babysitting.”