My DD is keen to go on a Spanish exchange this year. The trouble is, I can't bear the thought of having someone to stay in our house for a whole week I know it sounds silly, but I just like my own space. Our house isn't very big so there's no chance of hiding away!

I'm not naturally outgoing (unlike my DD ). I've learnt to put up with occasional sleepovers & having her friends round - I know it's really important to do this & I am fond of many of her friends. Of course if we did have an exchange student I would try very hard to make them welcome - as I would hope they would be to my own DD - but just the thought of it makes me feel all stressy!

Not sure why I'm posting really. Hopefully someone will reply telling me what a wonderful experience their DC had on an exchange & how the pain of having a house guest would be worth it!

T x

well, we've not done it but friends with TWINS did - yes, 4 hormonal girls crashing round the house for 10 days. That's 2 weekends and a week in the middle. Nearly killed her.
The girls loved it

Hi I know what you mean - we like our own space and fortunately so do DD and DS so no exchanges (so far). One of DS's friends was happy to go to germany but not so keen on the return trip....

We did the spanish exchange thing....
Our exchange student might just as well have stayed at the local Travelodge for allshe cared about learning about english culture. I might just as well have been the cleaner there. By the time she arrived at our house she and DD hated each other. She only wanted to go out to parties, smoke and/or drink andloathed us for trying to arrange cultural or enjoyable outings!
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Whilst our DD was in Spain she hated it although she liked the spanish parents and the spanish grandma who described her as "hot"!! We received a call from her at midnight on enight when the other students had all been at the shisha pipe and our DD was wandering the back streets of Seville distraught and crying. Attempting to raise the spanish teacher on her mobile failed because she was on the sangria at onother teacher's house and the mobile was switched off!
We tried the other emergency number with which we had been provided only to find it was the number for the council when nuclear war had broken out!!
Needless to say we were not impressed.
As for the general behaviour of the girls in england, I can only say that the name of the most "popular" girl from DD's school is the name we jokingly give to our British Blue cat when she is on heat!! 'Nuff said really!
DD2 will NOT be going on the exchange visit!

Magwich! you are so funny - this could be made into a fantastic sit com

I know! I bet poor old DD2 is straining at the leash furious she can't go. A far more memorable week than most that year, i bet.

We've had various discussions about exchange trips and happily all of us as a family agreed that having the grandparents or the cousins to stay is one thing, but a foreign student speaking Spanish/German/French/Italian is a completely different kettle of fish. Not for the faint (or is it feint) hearted, I'd have thought.

My kids have done a French homestay where they have stayed with a family in France that they'd never met before, all organised through school and that week was the longest of their lives. They had no hesitation in recommending to me that we didn't get involved in any exchange trip malarkey, so we have not

Well we had a slightly more positive experience with DD's German exchange (yr 9?) Our visitor was rather shy and homesick at first, but we soon discovered the best plan was to get together small groups of girls and their partners for any "social" occasions (on top of the wide range of things organised by the school during the week) - by the time my DD went to Germany she got on well with several others, English and German in the group and had a great time and I know some of the girls even made an extra trip to their partners in the summer holidays. They were able to make initial contact through MSN/facebook or whatever which also helped - and was useful later for assistance with coursework! Neither of my sons wanted to do an exchange (it always seemed more popular with girls at their school) but the exchanges seem to have been running successfully for many years. Some friends of mine have maintained contact with the same family in Germany (which has convenient children the same ages) and met up on holiday.

Of course it can be difficult trying to communicate or cope with a homesick (or wild!) teenager but it's only a week each way usually and my DD certainly had a wonderful time: she is now planning to take German to AS too even though it was her second foreign language ( most of the others on the trip had been learning for an extra year).

Fortunately too OH and I could both manage a smattering of rusty O Level German and of course our visitor's English was embarassingly good. Others at our school have done a lengthy Chinese exchange which must be hard work!

Doesn't sound like it's something I will agree to do in future listening to all this, I would worry too much and not worth the hassle! He can stick to school trips where they will be supervised by member's of staff thank you very much

We had a positive experience with exchange student. Daughter now in Y11 did an exchange in Y8 and they are still very much in touch now. My daughter went back for 2 weeks Summer 2008 and girl stayed with us for 2 weeks in 2008. Our daughter now going skiing in xmas hols with their family. Great opportunity and when I hear what happens on some 'organised' school trips I would rather my daughter be with another family we have now met.

What is happening about new rules for criminal record checks/exchanges??