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When I was a little girl, my best friend and I used to play games, like role playing games, where we'd pretend to be in certain situations. Our favourite scenario was being at boarding school! We used to run round the playground pretending we were late for dinner or we would hide under our coats, as though they were a duvet, pretending that the teachers were patrolling the dorms - whispering so we didn't get caught being up!! I was an only child and was so lonely - I was desperate to hang with other children in the evenings!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, as a child, I would have loved boarding school. I think as long as you make the effort to see your child most weekends and spend quality time with them in the school holidays it can be a great experience - and the quality of education is excellent! If I could afford it for my child, I'd definitely consider it!

When I was a little girl, I loved the book The Daring Game which was about girls at boarding school. (Many years later, I met someone who went to the school that it was based upon!) I used to dream about going to boarding school because it sounded to so fun... however, I was SO not ready to leave home to be away at university at 18! I was terribly lonely and missed my family. I went to a school that was a 6 hour drive from my parents house (and it wasn't possible to take a bus home for weekends). I transferred to a university that was 1.5 hrs away from my parents home the next year and was much happier.

That being said... at 22 I moved clear across the continent and was ready at that point.

I think what I'm trying to say is... every person is different in terms of when they are ready to live away from home... and you may not know it until it happens! I didn't expect to be so homesick at 18! So I don't know that I could send my own daughter away to school before 18.

I would have a hard time with it, but I don't think it's a bad option. A good friend of mine had two sisters that went to boarding school. They LOVED it! She decided to stay home for high school.

I don't think it's a bad thing, but I don't think it's for me. I don't like the idea of my kids leaving home that early.

I know several people who went to really prestigious boarding schools like Exeter, Andover, St. Paul's, Choate, Deerfield, etc. Many of these schools offer great educations. I'm not sure that I'd want that for my kid (I think kids need their parents' guidance even more during the teen years), but I can see why some parents and kids would choose this option.

I think it can be a great experience for children and know someone who's daughter goes to boarding school. However, it's not for us. She can leave home for college, we don't want our daughter to leave us yet. Plus DH is a public school teacher and we are both products of public schools and believe in them, especially when there are 2 parents actively involved in her education.

I always wanted to go to boarding school. Like @Cherrybee: I always use to role play that I was in boarding school and I loved the Mallory towers and st Clare's book series about boarding school. I kept begging my parents to send me!

I personally am too selfish to send my kids to boarding school. I want to spend too much time with them.

My cousin and her husband are in the military so they sent their kids to boarding school in England and it worked out great for them.

We are thankfully in an area with many great options so we probably won't need to consider this too carefully. I used to love the idea of boarding school but as I have gotten older I have really only had negative associations with them.

A good friend of mine in college went to a relatively prestigious school that had a boarding option (she commuted) and she had the same issues with it as @Mrs. Jacks: many of the girls struggled with eating disorders, drugs, alcohol etc and many came from very affluent backgrounds. My friend's parents made education a big priority and sent her despite it being a financial strain and she felt like the black sheep in a lot of instances.

A family I worked for has a daughter that they were considering sending to boarding school, the issue here was that they were having a hard time finding a school locally where she could get the help she needed both with academics and in regards to mental health. As we worked with the child's therapist it became clear that this was a relatively common solution which really shaded my view on things.

If we were ever to be in a position where our schools weren't an option and our child was interested in boarding schools I think I would want to be careful to interview schools to make sure I chose one that was conscious of these issues and helped to allay my fears that my child would be exposed to these types of things.

My cousins both went to boarding school because their parents worked as international aid workers and were living in various areas of Africa where there were not top notch schools. They both received GREAT educations, and had fabulous opportunities through the schools; but dealt with the same downsides other people have mentioned (lots of "spoiled rich kid syndrome"). Both cousins were/are very independent, non materialistic kids so they came out ok. I think for some kids though, it might be hard to deal with the experience if you can't keep up with the (often extremely wealthy) Jones'.