Yep. I agree. Absolutely true. No extended trip is complete without hearing someone else’s very private moments through a wall or nearly being run off the road by cars and trucks cutting corners on cliff roads freaking everyone out or fighting over which restaurant to eat in – such bliss! So, in order to enjoy these experiences and many more like them, I had to come up with ways of alleviating these potential tension creating cracks in our delicate parent/child relationships. Out of necessity I have discovered some staple coping mechanisms or ‘staples’ of how best to keep my teenagers from going over the edge into either their ‘hangry’ phase – you know, a hungry angry teenager (not too pleasant to travel with!) or completely disengage and retreat into their emotional cave too much.
Here’s what I’ve discovered so far:
1. Bread and cheese: yep good old bread and cheese is the staple that keeps on giving in any country. Be it croissant and cream cheese in France, margarita pizza in Italy, cheese fondue in Switzerland, pasta with cheesy sauce in Austria, cheese on rolls in Bavaria or the cheese panini everywhere this staple feeds hangry teenagers anywhere at anytime and has saved me much angst!
2. Toilet music: when nature calls the whole family knew about it whether they want to or not so the staple of toilet music was born. Whoever goes to the bathroom must take their phone with them and play music so that the rest of the family doesn’t need to be involved in ‘their business’. Has worked a treat – now, if only the toilet lid could just stay down too that would be awesome (this request came from the man of the family!).
3. Wi-Fi access: every time we arrived at new accommodation Sunny’s first question was always about the Wi-Fi access. Having Wi-Fi became a staple very quickly when we all needed some “space” from each other in the same room. We could just put our ear buds in and hook up to our individual Wi-Fi show of choice creating a virtual privacy. Ahhhh space!
4. Take own water everywhere: teenagers are always thirsty so having our own water in our own water bottles has indeed been a necessary staple and has saved us lots of money too. We had a couple of incidences where we turned up at a restaurant for dinner and the girls were offered alcohol because apparently they looked old enough! Well Sunny thought this was great and has since tried to convince me that if others think she looks old enough then she could just have some wine with me. Sorry honey, not happening no matter how many times you nag me!
5. Separate beds for the girls: do I need to say more? Teenagers sleeping in the same double bed with the same doona is a mistake! Do all you can to avoid it! Oh boy!
6. Snacks: a must have staple for car journeys and for waiting in long sightseeing lines. Standard requirement for all ages really.
7. Aim to travel zero waste: it’s just the right thing to do really so was a chosen staple before we left, but travelling zero waste has been a difficult task to continually stay true to. To assist us, we, at the insistence of my eco-warrior Rosiegirl, all brought with us our own keep cup, metal lunchbox, water bottle, spork and canvas bags for any shopping. She also brought her own metal straw, beeswax wrappers and hankies as she doesn’t use tissues anymore. All sounds plausible and doable before leaving but in practice, often the choice of doing the right environmental thing was out of our control as an international traveller. Take away food came in take away then throw away containers and combined with the language and cultural differences, communicating something simple like how we don’t want a plastic straw and why was often a monumental task. Rosiegirl was determined to succeed at this particular small endeavor, alas, her requests were more often than not ignored or misunderstood – I’m sure she’s experienced eco-anxiety almost everyday on our trip as the use of plastics is everywhere and there is no getting away from it.
8. Learn basic pleasantries of each new country visited: there is just no excuse for not being able to be polite even if you stuff it up! The attempt is what matters and plus each bungled attempt (which there were many by the way) provided much entertainment for the rest of the family!
9. Visiting Lush in each city: such remarks as “oh, I need some more soap!” or “I’ve run out of hair cream!” or “Let’s check out what’s new in this store!” have lured us all in every single time which turned visiting Lush into an unexpected staple. Honestly, I could write a whole separate blog on “Lushing your way around Europe with teenagers” as we certainly spent our fair share of time in this store in multiple locations. Yes I love the products too but we didn’t need to visit every single store in each city! Rosiegirl has since informed me how we are also definitely visiting London Oxford Street Lush as it’s the biggest in the world with unique products – oh well, maybe I could use another bar of great smelling soap!
