DR. F. FELICIA FERRARA: Hi. I'm Dr. Felicia, the parent coach, and I've been working with families and children and teens for over 25 years. I'd like to speak to you today about how to go on a family vacation with your teenager. Now remember, teens have quite a bit of their own opinions about whether they want to come with your or not. I mean, I think we've all heard the objections. Most families try to either take another child or another friend of the child along, of course, with permission from their parents, etcetera, or something like that. But one of the things you want to do when you're picking your vacation spot is to make sure that there are enough activities there for teenagers to accommodate the teenagers. For instance, a lot of summer resorts have a teenage dance room and so at night the teens are allowed in there and they have their own space. The other you want to do is make sure there's enough room in your actual room where you're staying so that they have a little privacy as well and just the same you're going to want some privacy. Because depending on how long you're staying there, usually we all get on each other's nerves in about two days. It doesn't take long because we have different interests. So like I said, you may pick the right place where there are teen activities. You may invite another friend to come along with you as long as you have parent permission, and you also may share in some of the activities. Make sure there are things you can do as a family unit; after all, that is the reason for a family vacation. So make sure you get in some of those activities like riding the dolphins or something like that together. And the other thing is what I've been told lately and what I come to realize is no one can resists animals. So if there's a zoo you can visit, go ahead and do that and observe some of the animals in the zoo. In the meantime, you do want to monitor your teen to make sure that they're not like slipping out at night and hitting a bar where they might get some liquor served to them because that's known to happen especially if you're in a resort where they have an open bar and happy hour. So you want to monitor your teens in that resort on that point, and you certainly you want to monitor them that they don't stray off so far that they go off with a stranger whether it's a female or a male. You want to be concerned about all of them, so you have to set those rules beforehand. So you might want to have an actual path of emergency cases and backups. You want to have each person to have their cellphones on. So that if one of your teens is in another place in the resort, they'd be able to call you quickly if they need you, and you might put yourself on speed dial on their telephone. I've used that very often with different relatives, in fact. So when you're going off to this family vacation, try to back off a little bit and let them have their own fun too. I know it's hard but you can do it. Try. Remember, they're not going to be our teens for long, and the whole idea is to set them off in a positive environment for their adulthood. So with that in mind, may your vacation be fun and safe. See you later.
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