I make my kids skip school for a long weekend. I wish they had personal days so they didn't stress over it.

When the author and her family vacation in the Catskills, her sons take a day or two off school.

Courtesy of Lindsay Karp I love the fall, and every year, my family and I visit the Catskill Mountains.

To make the most of the trip, my two sons usually take a day or two off school.

However, missing the time sometimes causes stress, and I wish they had personal days.

Fall is my favorite time of year, and it just so happens that our most loved destination — the Catskill Mountains — is breathtaking in October.

When we first started our Catskill family getaways in 2020, we went in the summer when the landscape was lush and green.

We've been there in winter to witness snow-covered mountains and in spring, when the ground is thawing.

However, my favorite time to visit is during peak foliage in autumn.

I refuse to miss the colorful mountainscape simply because my kids don't get a fall break.

But taking a couple of days off is not as simple as it should be.

Making up the work can be daunting This year, my boys are in middle and high school, and we wanted to take two days off school to extend a weekend; however, a hefty workload left them uneasy about missing more than one day.

I encouraged them to ask their teachers for work ahead of time so they wouldn't be scrambling to catch up later, but most teachers didn't have lesson plans completed in advance.

While away, they logged in to their school program in between activities to complete some work remotely .

When we returned home on Sunday, they finished some lingering assignments, but they weren't completely caught up from the one missed school day until later that week.