The tween and teenage years are difficult for everyone. Tweens and teens are starting to become more grown-up, and as such, they are very much into exploring who they are and what they like.
This is a natural stage of development for them and it is nothing to be concerned, with, but when it comes to vacations, it can pose a problem. Teens and tweens can be notoriously hard to please on vacation, and that means that trips are far less fun for everyone involved.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Although it might not be as easy as it once was, it is totally possible to enjoy trips with the tweens and teens in your life, here’s how:
Give everyone equal opportunity
If you are going on a family vacation, then you need to take everyone’s tastes into account, So, even if surfing is not your thing, you might still want to look into surfing camps for your tweens and teens who love the sport, or even if you’d rather visit a museum every day than go treetop climbing, schedule that in. Make sure you do something for everyone on your trip and you can keep everyone, including your teens and tweens, relatively happy.
Bring a friend along
Tweens and teens want to spend more time with their peers and less time with their families. So, if they are not exactly enthralled about going on vacation with you perhaps the lure of bringing a friend along will be enough to change their mind? The benefit of this is that they will have a companion who they can do all the things the rest of the family would rather not do, with, without you having to worry about them going off on their own. You can have meals together and so some of the things you will all enjoy as a group, but they can occasionally go off on their own adventures too, so everyone’s happy.
Let them have a say
Letting your tweens and teens have a say on your choice of restaurant or which way to walk back to the hotel, will give them more agency over their lives, which means they are less likely to feel like they have been dragged song on a boring trip against their wills, which mean they are more likely to engage and have fun with you and the rest of the family.
Dive in and do it
Don’t be bring old mom or dad when you’re on a trip with your teens, you’ll have so much more fun, and do a whole lot more bonding if you diving into that scuba class with them or rid that huge rollercoaster and show them that you know how to have fun, and more importantly, that you’re willing to do things that matter to them.
Tweens and teens might need to be handled differently than children of other ages, but that does not mean you can’t have a great time traveling with them, so be sure to have fun!
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