Page 29 - Kimberly Hunt and daughter

A complication may arise if your teen or one of your teens be personalized for your family. There is no “one size fits all”
has money available from some other source (e.g. part- when it comes to money or teenagers. As you struggle with
time job, babysitting, gifts, etc.). I don’t believe in penalizing the process, keep the goal in mind: To control your teen’s
someone who, through her efforts, is in a better financial spending to help make a vacation affordable for the whole
position. What I mean is if your teenager has earned money family. Besides, isn’t it time your teen quit being a bottomless
to spend on the trip, do not give her less than your teen money pit?
who has not been industrious. You may need to temper this
approach for a variety of reasons (e.g. if one teen is 19 and So, until next time, keep traveling with your teens!
the other 13). But I’m sure you get the idea. The teen who
worked and saved should not be penalized by receiving less P. S. I would love to hear from you, at the above e-mail ad-
parent money to spend than the teen who sat on his butt all dress, about all of your travel experiences with your teens.
year and hasn’t a penny to his name. Okay, stepping down Give me some helpful tips to pass along to other parents
from my soapbox… of teens. Tell me about your best trip and your worst, but
especially explain why the trips turned out that way. Tell me
There are many benefits to the Vacation Allowance. One is your ideas, gimmicks, threats, punishments, or anything that
a sense of independence. The teen doesn’t have to ask her might help the poor parent who is dreading a family trip with
parents every time she wants to buy something; she can a teenager. Together, we may save a parent’s sanity!
decide for herself. Second, many ATTITUDE-generating dis-
agreements between parent and teen can be avoided. You
don’t have to sweat the small stuff. Third, you’ll save money.
Bingo!

Now, it’s time to take pencil to paper and come up with
the amount of the Vacation Allowance. First, you’ll need to
determine your overall vacation budget. What!?! You don’t
have one. Shame on you! Get busy and figure out how much
you can afford to spend. After deducting the estimated fixed
costs (hotel, airfare, rental car, etc.) from the total available,
you have the pool of money left for variables like meals,
entertainment, and gasoline. Make an educated guess at
those. Guess high. Got any money left over? Good for you!
Think about the things you’ll expect your teen to pay for and
determine how much of a Vacation Allowance you can afford San Diego
to give him from the remaining funds. Woman

That wasn’t too painful, now
was it? 29

This process takes prac-
tice. The first time you plan
to use the “Show me the
money” philosophy, I sug-
gest that you sit down as
a family and discuss how
the Vacation Allowance will
work. Expect resistance.
Remember, it’s so much
easier to have Mom and
Dad pay for everything.
Consider asking each teen
to submit a written request
for his allowance. Depend-
ing on how formal you want
to make this, you could ask
for details. Something like:
$ for snacks, $ for souve-
nirs, $ for entertainment.
Compare the teen’s request
to the amount you’ve cal-
culated and determine an
acceptable compromise.
Of course, all of this has to
Issue 1, 2009