Handling Your Kid's End-Of-School-Year-Itis
Before you know it, summer will be here and the school year will be over. With summer vacation in sight, it's natural for your kids to concentrate and stay focused on schoolwork and final exams. If you’re finding this to be the case with your kids then maybe need you can provide some well-deserved breaks during these last couple of months before summer break. Kids naturally disconnect from the stress of school, particularly seniors who will be graduating soon. Without you as their parent stepping in then your kid’s grades may plummet. Or, some kids find escape the stress by making bad choices. They may skip school, cut class or dabble with alcohol or drugs.As their parent, you got to let them know that they have to stay focused on school even with summer break on the horizon. Give them down time where they can hang out friends, spend more time doing family activities. This is great time to talk about summer plans, whether it’s camps, vacations, road trips. Getting them involved in the summer plans – where they want to travel, how they want to travel and when they want to travel might motivate them to finish the school year with a bang. It gives your kids something to look forward to.
Survival Traveling Tips With Young Kids
When you think of family vacations you feel a whole lot of happiness plus plenty of stress. Parents know that traveling with young kids can be stressful.
The best way to plan a vacation is your kid's schedule as well as their and your triggers. This means that you travel and plan activities around on your kid's eating, napping and relaxing schedules. If they have most energy in the morning that's the best time to plan trips to the amusement park or beach. If they sleep easily in the car then travel during their nap times or at night. For kids who have short attention spans, pack a back pack filled with a variety of age appropriate activities: coloring books, crayons, travel games, books, magnetic toys (be careful of choking hazards). Schedule extra time to do anything because young kids are known to be dawdlers.
Sleepy kids are grumpy kids. Many times you can't control noisy neighbors or hallway noises in hotels. A white noise machine helps muffle sounds so everyone gets a good night's sleep.
If your child doesn't like loud noises then invest in pair of headphones to tone down scary sounds. Many times, amusement park attractions, roller coasters or movie theaters can be overwhelming loud for young kids. An added bonus of headphones is to protect your child's hearing. .
The main tip for parents is to plan around their kid’s trigger points for a more enjoyable road trips.
Peaceful Road Trips With Teens
Road trips with teens can bring about a different set of problems when they’re struggling for independence and separation from mom and dad.
The main thing to think about when traveling with teens is to plan the trip with your teen not for your teen. Teens want some decision making power. First, you decide the vacation basics and give your teen choices. For example, you can ask them if they want to vacation at the beach or the mountains. Or, if you're undecided about which hotel then ask your teen's opinion if they have a preference. When your teens are involved in the planning then they're more likely to be invested in the trip.
Some teens seem to want to lounge when there’s some much to do and see. Remember that vacation is a break from the daily routine. An 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. school day with a regimented schedule isn’t part of vacation. So have a relaxing moments during the day when you can. Wake up late. Eat meals off-times. There’s no right or wrong way to enjoy vacation.
Vacation isn't only for your teens, you as a parent want to unwind well on vacation. It seems that almost anything a parent does is embarrassing to a teen. A playful banter between between parents and teens is great way to relate to each other. At times, your teen might say something disrespectful and disparaging, which they think is funny. It's a time for you to call them on their misbehavior. You can say something like, "I know we're having fun and joking around. You crossed a line when you called me a name. Let me remind you of the rules. This is your warning. If it happens again then the consequence is ________ for this amount of time."
Ways To Avoid Chaotic Road Trips With Friends
You and some college buddies are planning a road trip. Just because you’re friends, doesn’t mean you’ll be great travel buddies. You can get a sense of what you're friend will be like on vacation by watching their daily habits. For example, are they late or on-time for meetings, get togethers or classes? Do they pay their own tab or do they mooch off of you when you go out? Are they morning people or night owls?
One of the biggest problems college friends have on road trips is making decisions. Too many times there's indecisiveness. This means that you spend more time trying to figure out what to do than actually doing the activity.
Realize that it's okay to not do everything together. It's perfectly reasonable to break up into groups and so separate things and meet up later.
Molly Weiss, my current intern who's a communications major at UNC-Greensboro, shares a tip on dealing with friends who want to do different activities than you. Take a look.
Molly Weiss, UNCG student from blanca cobb on Vimeo.
What are your survival tips for travel with young kids, teens and college friends traveling together. You can tweet me at @blancacobb. Remember to use the hash tag #BlancaOn2. Or, you can find me on my facebook page.
Blanca Cobb is a WFMY News 2 Contributing Editor, body language expert and keynote speaker/trainer. Follow her @blancacobb. The opinions expressed in this article are exclusively hers.
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