How to engage with your teenager so that
everyone has a good time!
Remember when family holidays were full of fun and excitement? Your littlies full of wonder and looking forward to the adventure? As they grow older, the shine of family road trips can sometimes diminish – and what used to be a fun, relaxing holiday can turn into something a little more challenging! So how can you engage with your teenager so that everyone has a good time? We’ve put together some handy hints that might help!
Planning
Involve your teen/s in the planning of your trip. Get them to research things that they’d like to see and do along the way. While you may not be able to do everything on their wish list, ensure that each child gets to choose an activity for you all to do on your holiday.
Ground Rules
Sit with your teen/s and work out some ground rules before you leave around such things as:
- Roles around the camp and how they will be rostered
- setting up
- packing up
- cooking
- cleaning
- gathering firewood
- building a campfire
- How much technology time will be allowed and when – and have open discussions about where wifi or internet coverage won’t be available so at least they are fore-warned if they are going to be incommunicado for a few days!
Choosing where to go
Choose campgrounds where there are activities on site or close by that your teen/s might enjoy. Many caravan parks have games rooms, movie nights and organised activities. Or if you are camping more remotely, find campsites close to great bushwalks or water activities. And think about adding an inflatable kayak or SUP to your camping kit.
There are a range of guided activities available in most national parks – while your children may not be interested in following a group of oldies identifying plant species, they may be interested in a night walk which points out the constellations in the sky or a hike to an isolated waterfall where they can dive and swim.
Psychology
Providing your teen with choices is also a great idea – but rather than say “what would you like to do today?”, give them the choice between two options eg. “Should we go rafting or should we go fishing?” – it’s all about how you approach it!
Personal Space
Personal space is very important to teenagers. They may have outgrown the bunk bed in your van (both physically and emotionally) – so consider giving them their own space to sleep in. Think swag or pop-up tent – somewhere they can have some space. And also let them opt out of activities occasionally…. sometimes they may just want to chill on their own!
Keep them fed and watered
A hangry teen is no fun – so make sure there are heaps of food options available that they enjoy, something that will keep them full and something they can even help cook (or you can teach them to!)
Bring a friend
If you have room available, you could consider inviting one of your teen’s friends along – not only does this mean they have someone to hang out with, but it may also mean that your teen doesn’t feel as ‘isolated’ from his peer group due to their limited access to socials.
Old fashioned fun
Anyone in your family musical? There’s something great about sitting around the fire with a guitar or similar – it’s always a great time to socialise and chill out together as a family. Or what about games nights? Everyone loves a games night! And before you know it, it may become a family holiday tradition!
Holiday Challenge
Consider setting a challenge for them to complete while they’re away – you can even form teams and compete against each other. If they’re technologically savvy, maybe it could be video diary of the trip, if they’re more scientifically or nature minded it might be a camping bingo where they have to locate certain items throughout the trip.
Obviously, every teen is different – and if you are lucky, you may be able to sail through without too many hiccoughs! The good news is that they always get through this stage – and one day you’ll be through to the other side and hopefully there’ll be many more years of happy family camping trips!