If teens don’t want to travel -do you?

[Anonymous]

Why don't they want to go? Are these trips you all plan together and that are designed to be vacations for all, or are they things you and your DH want and the kids have to come along?

We have a 14yo who hasn't pushed back yet, but we collectively plan all vacations so that everyone has things to look forward to and therefore can also be accepting of activities that aren't their first choice.

[Anonymous]

I think the secret to good trips is
1. Allowing plenty of down time. We are usually busy in the mornings but have a couple of hours to rest in the afternoon before going out again in the evening. And
2. Doing a good mix of things. We. Do museums etc but will also have time on the beach or doing outdoor stuff like rafting or hiking.

My kids are now late teens and have visited over 20 countries, and make trips on their own without us they enjoy it so much. But maybe we just got lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly you are doing something wrong on your trips.
As your kids what kind of vacations they are in to.

Clearly you haven’t had the pleasure of parenting teenagers yet. You’ll see, lol. You’ll be eating your words!

We have 4 kids (tweens and teens) and they’ve never complained about travel. They love to travel!

But we don’t drag them into countless museums or run them ragged from dawn til dusk.

Have you asked your kids where they’d like to go? Maybe they’d prefer a week in the Caribbean rather than museum hopping in Europe?

This is a pretty obnoxious comment. It's great that your kids love to travel, but not everyone is running their kids ragged or dragging them to museums for them not to like travel. I have two boys - one 18 and one 16. The 18 year old loves to travel and always has. He will go anywhere, but doesn't really like lazy vacations - he likes to do things. The 16 year old is a total homebody. He has been this way since he was about 10. He's a little anxious, doesn't really like crowds. He just feels "safe" at home. He also is a typical teen who likes hanging with his friends most of all, so that doesn't help things. That said, we offered to do a short trip with a friend and he didn't want to do that either. So is this bad parenting, or just his personality?

My 4 kids have different interests and travel styles, but we remind them they are one person in our family of six, so they need to be flexible. We mix up activities and carve out time for those who just need to chill while the more adventurous ones tackle other activities.

Another poster suggested a cruise. That’s a great idea for a family with different interests and activity levels.

[Anonymous]

Question for those with teens who don’t want to travel:

What were your last two or three vacations?
-Location
-Length
-Fly or drive?
-Accommodations
-Daily schedule/activities

[Anonymous]

I have a 20yo college student and a 17yo. The older DC loves to travel, the younger one hates it. Just doesn't like to be away from home, out of their comfort zone, etc. We take several short trips per year and one bigger one, usually to Europe.

Younger DC is not expected to go on the shorter trips but does go on the bigger trips and generally enjoys them. I think these trips have a lot of value outside of the family time spent together so I don't make it optional, but I try not to overload with museums/activities and whenever possible, we'll stay in an AirBnB with enough space for everyone to have their own room to decompress. I also don't require DC to go on every single outing during the trip.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Question for those with teens who don’t want to travel:

What were your last two or three vacations?
-Location
-Length
-Fly or drive?
-Accommodations
-Daily schedule/activities

All one week
Skiing trip (teen loves to ski)
Cruise
San Fransisco
Accommodations were dependent on location but we never put more than two kids to a room.
Please don’t make it about bad parenting/planning. Teenagers gonna be teenagers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not ship them off to camp and then you and DH go on a nice int'l trip?

+1

[Anonymous]

I don’t understand why people think it’s crazy some teens don’t love to travel. I know many adults who don’t enjoy traveling.

[Anonymous]

I think most individuals want to travel.

But, where, is the question.

Do they want to go anywhere?

Are they just not into the trip you’ve planned?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most individuals want to travel.

But, where, is the question.

Do they want to go anywhere?

Are they just not into the trip you’ve planned?

You’re wrong. Many many people are content not traveling, or not traveling much, or just traveling locally and to visit family. This board skews towards people who adore traveling, but I would not make the broad assumption that most people want to travel. Many many people find travel to be expensive and an unnecessary hassle, or just plain not interesting to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why people think it’s crazy some teens don’t love to travel. I know many adults who don’t enjoy traveling.

Bc those posters are those annoying people that assume everyone is just like them, and if they’re not then something is wrong with them. I hate shortsighted close-minded people like that, they are the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a 20yo college student and a 17yo. The older DC loves to travel, the younger one hates it. Just doesn't like to be away from home, out of their comfort zone, etc. We take several short trips per year and one bigger one, usually to Europe.

Younger DC is not expected to go on the shorter trips but does go on the bigger trips and generally enjoys them. I think these trips have a lot of value outside of the family time spent together so I don't make it optional, but I try not to overload with museums/activities and whenever possible, we'll stay in an AirBnB with enough space for everyone to have their own room to decompress. I also don't require DC to go on every single outing during the trip.

I am the poster with the 16 year old and 18 year old. These sound exactly like my kids. We also do short trips with the older one - usually just one parent - and it is wonderful because we both enjoy it so much. So far we have all gone on the long trips as a family, but we are wondering if even that is worth it because it is a lot of money and the younger child really would prefer to be at home. I do hope that some day he'll have appreciation for the places he was able to visit.

[Anonymous]

Lots of people don’t like to travel.

My spouse and I love it and thankfully our two teens do too. But I can certainly imagine some giving parents a hard time.

As to the question, I would probably try to to make sure it was a trip that appealed to my teen as much as possible if they didn’t like traveling and make them go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We go.
If they go, they are expected to participate 80% of time, otherwise they can stay home and not waste my hard earn money.
Thankfully we have family nearby to check in on them.

13 and 15 yr olds are not allowed to be home alone for more than a day.

This is a hard age for travel. They don't want to do things we want to do, and I don't want to do the things they want to do. So, when we go, we do some things they enjoy, and other things we enjoy (but they grumble about it). The only reason we go on our international travel is because of family. Otherwise, I would not waste money going there with our kids. I'd wait until they are out of the house, and go on our own.

But as they are getting older, they don't seem to mind going as much. We are going to go to a foreign country this summer not related to family because I have always wanted to go, and they are looking forward to this one.

[Anonymous]

I told my 17yo and 14yo we would only take one trip this year over the summer. We have traveled a ton the last 2 years during breaks and they have major friend FOMO plus they like the downtime at home.