Tips for Making Spring Break Safe for Your Teen

Spring break is one of those events, that every teen can't wait for and every parent would be just fine if it never happened again. It can be a very stressful time for parents whose kids are going off to some resort town hundreds, sometimes thousands of miles away. You know that you may be able to trust your teen but can you trust the people around them? The answer to that question, no matter what the circumstance is no, no, no. If you want you're teen to be safe during spring break, don't kid yourself about what is going to go on. Let's be honest, there will be drinking, drugs, sex and who knows what else all around your teen on these little trips. Not saying that your teen will be the one partaking in these activities but they will see them and most likely someone they are with will be doing these things. These tips may seem a little silly for such a big event but trust me the little things may help at any time.

The first tip is to make sure you know who your child is going to spring break with. Get the names of their parents, their pone numbers, whatever you think will help if something bad happens. Don't just get the names of the people your teen knows on the trip, make sure you know everyone that is in the traveling group. Your pretty cool parents already if your letting you teen embark on a spring break trip so this task is not too much to ask of your teen. Also when talking to your teen about the group they are with make sure they know that the more people they know and are with the safer they will tend to be.

Keep the line of communication open with your teen while they are away at spring break. This tip sounds really obvious but you tend to forget about the little things that you take for granted in your every day life. You may not be able to reach them on a cell phone if they are in Mexico or some other Country. Make sure you do your research about the phones at the hotel, if the cell phone will work, or even go as far as finding out if the hotel front desk employees speak English. There are some services that you can purchase through most major cell phone providers to add on an international plan for a short amount of time, I would recommend doing this. Another silly point about communication as well is to let your kids know that they can call you at any time. It doesn't matter what time of night it is or if you have to work the next day, make sure your teen is confident that they can call you at all hours of the night. The last tip with communication is to make sure they have emergency contacts stored in their cell phone contact list. It is a good idea to keep a few different emergency contacts at different locations in case one or more people can't be reached right away.

Another good tip is to keep a stash of money hidden and available to your teen at all times. You may even want to hide money in their suitcase where they wouldn't find it; a teen with money will spend it. Make sure they understand the importance of keeping some extra cash for emergencies. Now, there are obviously the talks about drugs and alcohol and sex you should have with your teens, but honestly if you are waiting until right before a spring break trip to have these discussions maybe they should not be going on such a trip. Sure a gentle reminder is always good but if you trust your teen to go on a spring break trip they are probably pretty good kids and you trust them to make good decisions.

Common sense goes a long way when it comes to events like these but there are always things that you would never think of. Sit down and brain storm ideas on how to keep the trip safe for your teens and their friends. You don't want to be the bad guy but your teen has to understand the stress that this will put on you as a parent.