Traveling with Teens | Challenges we face and how to overcome them | Teenage Schedules
This begins a series of conversations with moms of teens and how we work to overcome to challenges of traveling with teens.
This series was inspired by a conversation that started out as three women who love to travel with their teens connecting on social media. Our DMs and comments turned into a friendship that eventually developed into an Instagram Live and then quickly into a series because we found there was so much to discuss.
As our kids get older, it becomes blatantly apparent that our time with them is fleeting. As avid travelers and moms of teens, we have found that the experience of traveling with our teens gives us the time together that we so desperately want to hold on to. Through our adventures, both near and far, we’ve learned a lot about how teens travel and ways to make our trips a success for everyone involved.
Each week, new questions popped up and new ideas were generated so here we are, diving deeper into the conversation about traveling with teens. While the IG lives are a fun way to listen into a conversation, we recognize that not everyone has the time to listen, so we took notes on all that we discussed and put them into this blog post.
If you want to listen to the IG Live that inspired this series, follow this link. Be sure to follow us on Instagram (links below) to learn when our next live is scheduled for.
Before we get started, let’s introduce ourselves.
Laura, based in San Diego, she is a mom of two teens—14 and 16.
Laura’s website and Instagram page, Travel 80 by 80 were created to help parents travel intentionally with their teens. Laura has the incredible goal of traveling to 80 countries by the age of 80 and she’s well on her way. She has visited 61 countries on her own and 48 with her teens.
Laura loves to inspire us all to dig deep into the culture and personality of a destination, connecting with locals and experiencing the small towns and natural wonders that an area has to offer. Follow Laura on Instagram for updates, stories and travel inspiration.
Want to travel internationally with your teens? Laura has a blog filled with inspiration and itineraries for your next trip!
Looking for fun and interesting places to travel with your teens?
Laura recently wrote a blog post full of ideas on places that are perfect for teens—offering a balance of culture, outdoors and activities to keep them interested and challenged. Check it out here.
Meet Jen with Go Family Adventure
Jen, residing in South Carolina, is a mom of three teens, ranging from 13 to 18 and the creator of her website and IG page, @gofamilyadventure.
With three kids in traditional school and each of them involved in multiple sports and activities, Jen believes escaping the hustle of every day life, even if it’s only a couple of hours away, can shut down the noise and open up the doors to connection with her kids.
Jen and her family love the outdoors and are on a mission to disconnect and get outside as often as possible. Jen proves to us that everyone has their own definition for travel and adventure and through her blog and Instagram page, Jen offers so many ideas to get outside and be together. Beaches, National Parks, hiking trips, sailing trips—nothing outdoors is off limits with them!
Needing inspiration and ideas to get your teens outside? Jen’s blog Go Family Adventure is a must read!
Do you struggle with convincing your teens to get outside? Don’t worry, we all do! Jen has some great suggestions and tips that we can all use to get our teens off their screens and into the fresh air. Read all about it here!
In case you are new here, let me introduce myself: I’m Juli with Celebrate and Explore
Of the three of us, I am the closest to becoming an empty nester. Mom to a 16 and 18 year old, by 2023 both kids will be off to college.
Over the last few years, my family and I have taken travel to a new level because we have found that travel was the best way to stay rooted in family and connect with each other when life seems to always be pulling us apart.
We travel both internationally and across the US and love both big cities and the great outdoors. My blog and Instagram page @celebrateandexplore, were created to inspire families with teens to travel together and to encourage moms who have lost a bit of their adventurous side to rediscover a bit of themselves through travel. Motherhood, like travel, is a journey and sharing our experiences with each other as we navigate the highs and lows makes our days a bit more manageable.
Let’s get started! This series will cover five of the most common challenges parents of teenagers face when traveling.
Our five topics include busy schedules, school work, pushback, phones and electronics and personal space.
We do want to preface this blog series by saying that all 7 of our teens are in traditional school. While we are sure homeschoolers face many of the same challenges we do (after all, we are talking about teenagers!), some topics, like this one, that we discuss are heightened with the restrictions that traditional schools impose.
Teenagers’ schedules are one of the biggest challenges to trip planning
Let’s be honest, teenagers are busy people! Work, school, sports, volunteering, clubs–whatever your teens are involved in, chances are they have crammed schedules.
Add to that they don’t get a lot of time off from school–so not only does it take a lot to plan a trip but there is also not a lot of time to travel!
Q: My kids have hectic and demanding sports schedules, how do you work around that?
Below are our top tips to address this common situation. We all tend to think life will get easier when we have teenagers but it turns out that teens are the busiest people on the planet and while we may not always have to take them, as their parents we want to watch them play, perform or compete every chance we get so we are often running from place to place to see it all!
Try to find a season where there is no organized sport and let that be your focus for an extended trip.
Compare calendars or better yet, have a master family calendar on a shared platform like Google calendar so everyone is on the same page. You can turn this into a great lesson for teens by having them enter their own schedule—no need for mom to have to do it all!
Have conversations about willingness to miss meet/game. Teens are often willing to miss 1 or 2 games for the experience of travel.
Be sure your teens understand that there might be consequences upon return such as being benched or on a lower line. Typically this is a short-term situation but it easier for teens to understand if they can anticipate it.
Work with coaches, some understand, some don’t. With all things in life, communication is key. Sometimes advance notice might help the coach prepare for an absence but if they are not willing to be flexible then at least you can help your teen prepare for their return & potential consequences.
Going through this process is a great life lesson. It helps teens see that we can’t have everything you want in life, there are trade-offs.
Take opportunities when you find them, be spontaneous and flexible. Trips with teens don’t always need to be exotic, far away places. Just escaping the routine for a few days, even a couple hours from home, can make a world of difference to reconnect and unwind together.
Remember that there are so many games, so many matches. A great question to ask you teens is, “are you going to remember that you missed the game or that you get to take an amazing trip and experience a new place?” Often just adjusting their perspective can help them see the big picture and relent a little on determination to stay home for every game/match.
There are exceptions to the last mentioned tip. Be sure to think about important sporting events and protect them for the your teens, especially during their senior year and tournaments that they are looking forward to. It’s important to protect the events that are a priority to your teen. Doing so will cut down on resentment and pushback and discussing this in advance will help them see that you are trying to compromise and consider their needs and wants too.
Getting teens outside and away from stresses and a goal for all parents.
Photo courtesy of @emman16ol via Unsplash
Final thoughts…
All three of us agree that teens can have a hard time seeing the big picture and due to limited life experiences often believe that dire consequences or the worst-case scenario is likely to play out, when in fact, we as parents know that is not always true.
If your teen is really hesitant about missing a school or sport based event, then start slow. Go away for a weekend, take a short road trip and let them see that it is possible to do both—be involved and take a family trip. Baby steps in the beginning can help inch them towards being open to a bigger, longer trip.
Let’s continue the conversation…
Next in the series is another common struggle, balancing school work. In the following blog post, we are covering all things homework, work load and class expectations.
Celebrate your teens, explore the world together!
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