How to Protect Teens on Spring Break

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Currently, a few million teens in the world are on spring break as college students and even as seniors and juniors in High School. Do parents have any clue what is really going on?

Probably not.

I always thought that the Spring Break antics were sort of a well-kept secret/point of denial and ignorance from many parents. Yet, MomLogic did an amazing expose on this topic for this week and I had to post about it and give them a plug.

WARNING: THESE MOM LOGIC VIDEOS ARE SHOCKING.

To be honest, if your kid wants to go out and party like crazy over spring break, there is not much you can do. Yet, there are some ways to keep them safe and hopefully, sane enough not to make some really bad decisions.

1) Set Check In Times

With the recent disappearances and kids being in foreign locations with people who want to take advantage of a bunch of rowdy, drunk, unaware, wealthy, teens (true or not) is a big concern. Having set, pre-agreed check in times, like calling everyday at 4pm Cancun time, is a good way to make sure they are ok. Maybe this is an email, text message or phone call, but it keeps them a little accountable and you do not have to sit around worrying and waiting for them to call.

2) Make it easy for them to check in.

The biggest excuses are:

-“I didn’t have reception” So tell them they can make hotel phone calls and you will pay for that portion of the bill (sneaky way to see the bill and what was charged)

-”My phone doesn’t work there” Get a pre-paid calling card and send them with it.

-”There is no Internet on the ship/Mexico/friends house” It is worth your time to research online where the nearest Internet cafe is and offer to pay for them to send you one email a day.

3) Send them with numbers.

Your teen will hate this, but they do not have to tell their friends. Research ahead of time the local hospital numbers, emergency number, police, doctor, embassy, CAB SERVICE and any friends you have in the area. Put the numbers on a little card and they can keep it in the bottom of their suitcase. They probably (hopefully) will never use it, but if and when they get in a bad situation–they will be so happy they have that card in the bottom of their bag.

4) Know who they are going with and talk to their parents

Make sure you know who else is going and talk to their parents. When parents all work together to find out little bits of information, there is not much we can hide…and again if anything goes wrong it is good to have other numbers to call.

5) Check out their pre-plans

I.E make sure they have plans. Teens have this horrible habit of saying, “we will find a room when we get there!” or “we will get a rental car somewhere near the airport.” This inevitably leads to disaster. Make sure you have a basic itinerary and they have aspects like where they are staying, how they are getting places and how they are getting home all planned out.

6) Make them have a place for important documents

This is not an obvious one but so important! Get a group of teens together and someone is going to lose their drivers license on the beach, leave their passport at the airport, misplace their airline tickets or spill on their hotel reservation confirmation. Get them a little folder and make a place WITH THEM BEFORE THEY LEAVE where they will put all of their important documents. I cannot tell you how many times friends have had to buy new tickets/fly home without a license/get a new passport because of careless accidents. Do not let it happen to your kid~

7) Let them have fun

Do encourage them to have lots of fun. If you are one big ball of worries, you will push them further away from you and they will probably not show you any pictures when they get home (even the appropriate ones) if you nag them the whole time. Hopefully, you have some faith, so show them you really want to trust them!

Do not forget to check out the MomLogic Spring Break Confessions!