Traveling With Teens
The family and I took a road trip to Disney World this weekend. (In fact I’m blogging from my cell phone as I wait for them to ride the Tower of Terror because I’m a big chicken and refuse to ride with them. So please excuse any typographical errors…like usual.)
Disney World may be “the happiest place on Earth,” but, after a 2 day trip, our minivan sure isn’t. Traveling with kids, even teenagers (actually, especially teenagers) is no fun at all.
I thought teens would be easier to travel with because they are older. But I was mistaken. Our teens wrestled in the back of the car. They picked on their little brother. They got in to screaming matches with each other. I actually hollered out, “Don’t make me pull this car over and spank your butts.” At my teens.And I’m not going to lie. There was a point where I considered leaving them on the side of the road to fend for themselves. It was very frustrating.
But we made it. And without any bodily harm. I consider that a success.
On our way here I realized family road trips have really changed over the years. When I was a little girl we played games in the car to pass the time. We played classic road trip games like the license plate game, the alphabet game, and I Spy. This trip (other than bickering) we barely spoke to each other. Instead we had iPods, XM radio, Gameboys, a PSP, and laptops to entertain us. I think the only real communicating going on in our minivan was Jill; the voice on the GPS.
How do you survive a road trip with your teens? I can use all the tips I can get because we still need to make the return trip home.
Drive while they are sleeping.
Drive while they are sleeping. Absolutely. We leave for most trips at dinner time. We have sandwiches and chips in the car. DH does not fuel the vehicle before we leave– we always plan on getting fuel about 2h into the trip. So we leave around 6 p.m. and eat in the car, stop around 8 p.m. and have a potty break and fuel the vehicle. Then we are back on the road and they *fall asleep*…. dh drives until midnight when we find a truck stop for more fuel and coffee, and then I drive a few hours while dh sleeps. Once when I did this sans dh, I just kept driving until I got too sleepy, then pulled over and slept in a truck stop for 45 minutes or so, then kept on going. Yes, I know people don’t think it’s safe, but it is what it is.
We never have electronic things on our road trips, so mine have had to learn to do it the old fashioned way. We did a 3600 mile trip this summer with 3 boys ages 14, 12, and 11, in a Ford Escape hybrid, without ever using the A/C. We avoid the Interstate as you can’t see anything from the Interstate. We use the Interstate only during overnight drives. During the day we stick to state highways… they are much more interesting, the kids see the country, there are landmarks to ooh and ahh over and Historical Markers to pull over and check out and stretch legs. It makes the trip take a little longer but oh well. Now I’ve written all this it’s practically a blog post so I think I’ll copy it to my blog. Hahaha.
Limit the electronics time. Have an hour or two of electronics time and then an hour or two off. You could also try a book on CD that the whole family can listen to together – it may give you all something to talk about when it is over. Good luck!
Oh Christine, don’t say that! I was looking forward to the kids being older
I can say that my oldest (now 6) does occupy herself in the car by reading or playing her Gameboy. The other two usually watch a DVD 