This time last month Miss Frugal and I were in the middle of our trip to New York which was genuinely an amazing few days for both of us. I’ve already told you a little bit about the trip itself so I wont bore you with that again but I do want to tell you about some of the things I learned while we were away together – specifically the things I learned about travelling with a teenager.
Data Allowance
When travelling with a teenager it is essential that you have plenty of data so they can Snapchat and Instagram to their hearts content. Honestly, if they can’t share it on social media then it might as well not have happened. 😉
I found the cheapest way to use our phone abroad was with a Three Sim which was brilliant. I wrote about that here if you want to have a look.
Space in your suitcase
As soon as Miss Frugal announced that she was going to New York, the orders started flooding in from here friends for wanted while we were there. Obviously, that’s not a problem at all, especially as they all gave her the money before we went but we realised when we were packing to come home that everything she’d bought added to what she’d taken with us wasn’t going to fit in her suitcase. It’s a good job I knew that would happen and I’d deliberately taken less so I could have plenty of space in my case for her to use.
Patience
Patience is definitely a must-have when travelling with a teenager, especially my teenager. 😉
She’s make-up obsessed so I had to visit just about every branch of Sephora in New York (trust me, that’s more than one visit a day) as well as spending almost two hours in the ‘Pink’ section of Victoria’s Secrets (the non-sexy lingerie section). These were some of the things she’d looked forward to the most so even though they were the last places I wanted to be, I smiled and enjoyed it with her because I didn’t want to ruin her fun.
Blister Plasters
I have never walked so much in my life the day we went shopping on Fifth Avenue – I think my Bellabeat Leaf almost exploded at the number of steps it recorded that day! It wasn’t just that though, it was the fact that she’d researched shops that she wanted to visit but some of them were a bit out of the way so we had to walk for what felt like miles to get to some shops.
The ability to speak Starbucks
This one is probably only relevant if you’re travelling to the US and have a Starbucks obsessed teenager but it’s a real art ordering a Starbucks in the US. It feels like a game of twenty questions trying to order so I had to learn to speak Starbucks pretty quickly.
Fast Fingers
Most teens are camera shy – mine certainly is!
The only way I can capture a picture of her without her pouting or covering her face is by getting in there quick. There’s no time to focus or think about composition as she’ll have time to react in that time so I just literally point and shoot. I’ve caught some great ones of her recently showing pure happiness ad wonder on her face but unfortunately, we have an agreement that none of the photos I took are to be shared without her agreement and she’s not keen on letting me share the ones I love. Agreeing not to share without her agreement certainly encourages her to let me photograph her more often though so I recommend making sure your teen knows that the photos are simply to capture moments and not to share.
Money
I think most parent of teens will agree that when you travel somewhere new (here or abroad) then they’ll want everything they see! I won’t spoil the kids but I do like holidays to be a time when I say yes more than I say no. For New York, Miss Frugal saved so hard and ended up with a good amount of money – she didn’t go out with her friends from the day we booked, she did odd jobs for me, babysitting and saved all her Christmas and Birthday money. She had enough money that she could buy the things she wanted and more which was great but I did still buy her some treats. We went in Tiffanys on Fifth Avenue where they have a try on section with jewellery and dressing tables and the staff were so lovely letting us try on whatever we wanted which was so much fun! It was such an experience being in the iconic shop and in the end, we wanted a blue box so we went halves on a necklace that hasn’t been off since we got home.
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