“It’s an oxymoron to have a ‘family vacation’ with two teenagers,”

[elleng]

said Madeline Levine, a psychologist and author of “The Price of Privilege.”

President’s Test: Family Vacation With Teenage Girls

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/29/us/president-in-the-hot-seat-family-vacation-with-teenage-girls.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

[yourout]

1. As I told the Mrs......You can take a trip with the kids. But you can't take a vacation with them.

[SheilaT]

2. It is not an immutable law of the Universe that teenagers will

be totally awful.

I had two sons, no daughters, so I do not know as much about teenage girls, but we took family vacations with the sons all the way through high school and it was never a problem. They came a long cheerfully, we did things they wanted to do as well as what we wanted, and only once did I have a kid who sulked and tried to refuse to participate one day. He was about twelve at the time, and I simply told him he was coming along on that particular activity, and once we were doing it, he'd gotten over the sulk and was very glad we did it. It was visiting Niagara Falls, by the way.

In fact, I found teens to be far easier to travel with than very young children, because you can talk to them, really talk to them, unlike a baby or toddler. Plus, if you're driving they tolerate several hours in the car much better. When they were very young it was necessary to stop every couple of hours so they could run around, and I needed to build that time into the drive. And then when they were old enough to share the driving, it was bliss!

Now that they are grown and on their own, I very much miss those times.

[elleng]

3. Quite right, SheilaT.

2 daughters here, and we did a number of big trips, really NOT vacations, and they remember them all fondly (I think.)

[postulater]

4. Really?

Last edited Mon Dec 29, 2014, 05:32 PM - Edit history (1)

We have two lovely grown daughters, both in college, and we all totally enjoy vacations together.

In fact that is the purpose of our vacations.

We make sure we go places that everyone can find something to do they enjoy and we don't go where we know someone will be totally miserable.

Nearly all of the things we enjoy are outdoors anyway so we can always find nice places.

Lately we have been visiting Florida to see grandpa and we go to their great state parks for birds, the beaches for sand and sun, and anywhere for food.

Our fallback is to Door County Wisconsin where we camp (with some luxury like showers and a cabin). We can always find something fun there, and the best beach in Wisconsin.

We have travelled as a family since they were very young, for dance competitions throughout the midwest, the US and Ireland. That got them used to going places and looking forward to it.