Pre-College Road Trip

TempeMom
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 15:28:11 +0000

I think in summary that it isn’t so much not trusting good kids, but that as adults we know that things go wrong. They just do. The longer the trip, the older the car, the more miles you have to drive, the more out of the way you are in the boonies, the tighter the money, the more likely something will happen. Maybe not death or mayhem, but in two trips across the U.S. something.

A blown out tire in sparsely populated Arizona, drunk bikers trying to hit on you in your isolated campground, your bankcard being refused 1200 miles from home (do you even know what your daily withdrawal limit is?) and no idea how to get money on a Sunday in an emergency, a speeding ticket in a small town you hope never to see again, a twister, breaking an ankle so that the main driver can’t drive any more, a lost wallet which you think you probably left at an isolated gas station in a town who’s name you don’t remember four hours ago (this has happened to me). Something.

I would be more interested as the parent if my child and her friend had shown excellent coping skills over a variety of circumstances without a ton of adult hands on–camps, camping, etc. An adaptable kid who I knew could sleep in the car and eat on $5 if needed and deal with small emergencies without freaking out. Who knew if she got (virtually or metaphorically) lost to STOP and think. A self-reliant kid who could figure how to bail herself out of most everyday situations and hadn’t during high school needed mom to talk to teachers/coachs/doctors/ shop keepers or needed a lot of sheparding on basic tasks. And probably most of all a kid who had a good awareness of personal safety/social situations and wasn’t reckless.