Newyorker, don't worry about bringing the friends! We have two teens--our eldest is a boy who is entering college this year, and our daughter is a high school junior. We spent a week in Seagrove last month and our daughter brought a friend, and our son brought his girlfriend.
We had big discussions about bringing the girlfriend. Should we? Shouldn't we? But in the end we did, because the two of them are joined at the hip anyway and he'd have been miserable without her (and probably would have made us miserable with his moping around!). Plus, we are very fond of her ourselves, and we knew she'd fit in with us. We spoke with her parents and they read her the "riot act" as in Behave Yourself Like the Nice Girl You Are! and we did the same with our boy. I will say that the two of them rose to the occasion. That's the key to successfully bringing along friends: talk with the other parents and let them know what you expect, and talk with your own kids as well. If clear-cut ground rules are set forth, there's no reason why you should have a "Panama City Spring Break Special With Teens Gone Wild" under your own roof just because you have romantic teens on hand!
I think our vacation was enhanced by having the friends along, to tell you the truth. And I say this after a 14-hour drive from Indianapolis with all six of us stuffed like sardines in a can! Our kids were happy to have built-in entertainment along, and we also were entertained (yes, I know that sounds perverse; we're talking about teens here, but they ARE entertaining!).
I'm afraid I can't give you too much in the way of what to do with kids because ours did have access to the family car, and we did bring down our bikes, which we all used a lot. Otherwise, the kids swam and tanned, went on picnics (go figure), shopped, and walked the beach late at night. Oh, and they played cards at night, great big noisy card games with rules they probably made up. I thought they'd like going to Seaside and Rosemary Beach for the outdoor movies, but it was the concerts they really preferred. A week passed by very easily with all the kids. I needn't add that they helped with cooking and took care of the their own laundry, which is good, because this mama is no one's maid.
We all had a great time, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
We had big discussions about bringing the girlfriend. Should we? Shouldn't we? But in the end we did, because the two of them are joined at the hip anyway and he'd have been miserable without her (and probably would have made us miserable with his moping around!). Plus, we are very fond of her ourselves, and we knew she'd fit in with us. We spoke with her parents and they read her the "riot act" as in Behave Yourself Like the Nice Girl You Are! and we did the same with our boy. I will say that the two of them rose to the occasion. That's the key to successfully bringing along friends: talk with the other parents and let them know what you expect, and talk with your own kids as well. If clear-cut ground rules are set forth, there's no reason why you should have a "Panama City Spring Break Special With Teens Gone Wild" under your own roof just because you have romantic teens on hand!
I think our vacation was enhanced by having the friends along, to tell you the truth. And I say this after a 14-hour drive from Indianapolis with all six of us stuffed like sardines in a can! Our kids were happy to have built-in entertainment along, and we also were entertained (yes, I know that sounds perverse; we're talking about teens here, but they ARE entertaining!).
I'm afraid I can't give you too much in the way of what to do with kids because ours did have access to the family car, and we did bring down our bikes, which we all used a lot. Otherwise, the kids swam and tanned, went on picnics (go figure), shopped, and walked the beach late at night. Oh, and they played cards at night, great big noisy card games with rules they probably made up. I thought they'd like going to Seaside and Rosemary Beach for the outdoor movies, but it was the concerts they really preferred. A week passed by very easily with all the kids. I needn't add that they helped with cooking and took care of the their own laundry, which is good, because this mama is no one's maid.
We all had a great time, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.