Take a Road Trip

As kids move through their teen years, it is, of course, normal for them to become more independent.  This is usually most obvious in how much time the DON'T want to spend with you - ha ha.  It's kinda hard to not take it personally sometimes.  But you have to remind yourself that you did the same thing at that age.

My mother told me that some of her favorite times with us teenagers was while driving in the car.  She always said there was something disarming about everyone looking out the window, and chatting.  I did not remember this until a recent great conversation with my 17-year old daughter.

She is active at school, also with outside activities and has a boyfriend. There's been a little friction lately as she is not around much.  Conversations were short and often mildly agitated.  Then, we got stuck in traffic one afternoon, and that caused us to break from the routine conversation.  The extended time allowed us to go a little deeper in our talk.  It was great.

Shortly after that, we took a road trip to visit a college.  This meant many hours in a car.  But i have to confirm what my mother had said.  This facilitated many in-depth discussions across many aspects of life.  It felt almost like we started over.

And even though life went back to the busy routine, she and I had bonded in a new way that has continued over the past two months.

Take a road trip, or try to engage with your teen while driving.  I bet you you have a similar experience.