Children no longer spend holidays with grandparents

Children no longer spend holidays with grandparents

JAKARTA (JP): School holidays start this week, and parents can
no longer simply send children off to grandparents in the
ancestral village. A craving for recreation sites means parents
worry how much money they must have on the verge of the month-
long holiday, not to mention for the new school year.

Meanwhile holiday destinations such as Bali, Singapore and
Australia are now frowned upon by wealthy families -- Europe and
the United States of America are becoming "must" destinations.

Zumrotin K. Soesilo, an executive of the Indonesian Consumers
Foundation (YLKI) said yesterday the change has become
increasingly obvious since the 1980s.

"Children won't stand for a week at their grandparents'
place," she said.

Even among the less wealthy, children only want to stay with
grandparents for a few days and they demand to go to places which
needs a lot of money.

"There are less children now who would be happy to go to
ancestral villages and bathe in the river," she said.

Parents at a secondary school in South Jakarta discussed
yesterday this year's destinations like Queensland, Australia,
and Kansas, the United States. One parent who said her family may
be going to Malang, East Java, was the odd one out.

Meanwhile Suwanti, a vendor in Bendungan Hilir, Central
Jakarta, said it was difficult enough for her to spend Rp 15,000
(US$6.42) for her child to go on a school trip to the Ragunan
Zoo, besides another Rp 30,000 to pay for examination attendance.

She said she and her husband are now seeking funds to pay at
least Rp 150,000 for the child to enter a state junior school.

Zumrotin urged parents to seek out recreation sites which are
relatively inexpensive.

A recent report of a survey on recreation behavior by the
Indonesian Consumers Foundation suggested parents should seek out
more information sources other than media commercials.

The survey found people respond to aggressive advertising by
recreation sites, indicated by the flood of people heading to
Lippo Supermal in Tangerang, while many attractive places which
do not advertise cost much less.

"The collection of the Fresh Water Fish Museum in Taman Mini
is not inferior to that of Seaworld in Ancol Dreamland," the
report in the March edition of the foundation's publication said.

"For an almost similar level of satisfaction at the museum
consumers only pay half the ticket price compared to Seaworld (Rp
11,000 on Sundays per person)," Warta Konsumen reported.

People are also irrational and take it for granted that
recreation means high costs for snacks or meals, "while a little
preparation at home could save much of your budget", the study
reasoned.

Zumrotin said the preference for expensive sites cannot only
be blamed on the companies which run them.

"Indonesians have yet to develop more appreciation of
recreation sites which are educational or which expose children
to nature," she said.

Among new educational centers are the Science and Technology
Center for children at Taman Mini, and the Mekarsari Fruit Park
in Bogor which charges Rp 2,500 per adult.

Cheap recreation sites such as the Ragunan Zoo in South
Jakarta and the Botanical Gardens in Bogor are considered to be
for the lower class who have no other option.

Also, recreation centers such as Dreamland in Ancol should
provide more access for the less well-off, Zumrotin said,
although the centers do have cheaper tickets for students.

"A civil servant earning less than Rp 200,000 cannot take his
family to Dreamland," Zumrotin said.

If children only want to go on the much-advertised Rama Sinta
tunnel ride on Sundays, they must still pay Rp 22,000 per person
which covers all facilities. (anr)