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c R A I S I N G T E E N S
oil thought your
high schooler’s
soaring stress
levels were
worrisome
enough, until she
came to you with
her idea of a breather—a spring break
trip with friends, no parents allowed.
Now
y o u 'r e
the one who’s stressed.
Should you go ahead and let your
soon-to-be-college-student travel
without you? It’s a decision more
parents are struggling to make.
The traditional spring break trip,
once a rite of passage reserved
exclusively for the college crowd, has
become increasingly common among
high schoolers. A recent travel-
industry study found that more than
70 percent of adolescents had taken
a non-family group trip in the past
12 months. But don’t presume these
trips are decadent and irresponsible.
“The spring break trips every
parent thinks of—the MTV party
trips—have gone down significantly
in popularity,” says Michael Palmer,
executive director of the Student and
Youth Travel Association (SYTA),
an industry trade association. “The
number of students going to Cancun
now is about half what it was in
2000.” Now, instead of party trips,
more teens are finding a broader
range of experiences open to them,
taking school trips abroad or
vacations that combine lying on
the beach with volunteering or
touring historical sites.
That shift is a good thing, say
experts, who agree that spring break
trips to sunny locales like Panama
City, Florida, or Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico, can lead to big trouble, from
binge drinking and casual sex to car
accidents and run-ins with the law.
But there are still some teens
G i v e T h e m
L i b e r t y
D o n ’t ta k e p e rs o n a lly y o u r te e n ’s
e ffo r ts to d itc h y o u . T eens n e e d to
d e fin e w h o th e y a re a p a rt fr o m y o u .
G ive y o u rs s o m e s o lo tim e — a n d a
p ra c tic e ru n a t a d u lth o o d — o n y o u r
n e x t fa m ily v a c a tio n b y le ttin g h im v is it
a to u r is t s p o t a lo n e o r ta k e h is o w n d a y
tr ip . It w ill h e lp h im b u ild c o n fid e n c e in
h is a b ility to h a n d le th e w o rld , says
A a ro n C o o p e r, p s y c h o lo g is t w ith th e
F a m ily In s titu te a t N o rth w e s te rn
U n iv e rs ity . “ T ra v e lin g w ith o u t p a re n ts
p ro v id e s g re a t o p p o rtu n itie s f o r te e n s
to fa c e o rd in a ry a d v e rs itie s a n d le a rn
fr o m th e e x p e rie n c e — fo r in s ta n c e ,
w h a t to d o w h e n th e y re a liz e th e y ’ve
ru n o u t o f ca sh . C o p in g w ith th is k in d o f
a d v e rs ity is h o w w e b u ild re s ilie n c e ,
w h e th e r w e ’re 7 o r 17.”
2 0 4
MARCH
2009
BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS
PHOTO: VEER
