Traveling with Teenage Friends
Does anyone else take their kid’s friends with them on trips? The summer is fast approaching and thoughts of going to the beach are a hot topic around our house. Head daughter (15 yr old) wants to bring her friend with us. Not to be cheated out of anything his sister gets,….all-knowing younger son (13 yr old) wants to bring a friend too.
We tried this already. Over a long week-end this winter we brought a friend for each of them when we went skiing in Tahoe. It was an eye-opener. In past years we always skied during Christmas so the subject of bringing friends never came up. This time, it was February and we had a big cabin on loan so why not?? They really NEEDED their friends, you know…
I had no idea the extra details involved. Not only do you have 2X the winter gear (how many gloves did we bring????) But, it turned out one was getting pink eye and the other was very talkative. I can’t ski anymore since my right knee is cranky from all those years of step-aerobics (remember that?) so I thought it would be fairly easy to run the show. Let’s just say I cooked a lot and nursed a headache.
I guess they really did have a good time and my own kids didn’t argue at all because they were too pre-occupied. I was a little concerned about letting them have full freedom on the ski slope.
But since they were all beginning snowboarders (every cool teenager has ditched skis) they couldn’t get into too much trouble. On the way home, we sat in traffic for 3 hours waiting to get through the Pass. I taught disco lessons from behind the driver’s seat to keep everyone “entertained”.
Now, here we are thinking of another trip, maybe to the beach, maybe to a hotel with a pool…..OMG can I handle it? And, it made me think about the whole idea of bringing other people’s teenagers along on a family trip. There must be pitfalls I’ve not thought of and dare I say, benefits?
But, right now, all I can think about is piles of wet, stinky swimsuits and towels and my husband saying, "What do you mean, you dropped the $50.00 towel card in the toilet accidentally?"
Original 50-Something Blog Post
