h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Let them have their own cd player with headphones and an endless supply of batteries and munchies. If they want to make a mess of the car, let them. You can always show the pigsty to Grandma and she will insist they remedy the situation.

If the teenager is ensconced within his/her own tunes enough, he/she may fall asleep, making travel much easier. If the teenager remains restless, use valium. It may not be legal, but it is worth a try... right!??

Hmm...sounds good to me, I'm a teenager right now and am about to endeavor on a long trip. The most important thing I think to keep in mind about it is to just leave teenagers to themselves. Generally I'd want nothing more than to be left to my own devices on a trip, I think that this may be a general concensus, unless it's just anti-socials like myself who only want this treatment

I've seen other people such as my friends who can't stand to be left alone, and crave attention. For instance, on the long bus rides to Florida that my marching band trips, most if not all the people on the bus were teenagers. So this almost certainly meant that huge get togethers would form. The things going on ranged from Eucher tournaments to games of truth or dare, in which people had to do such things as lick the bus floor, which is by no means clean, even *before* 26hrs of messy kids being on it.

I used to insist everyone played eye-spy. Until I was 15. Now I just stare out of the window. I never get bored. I just go into a sort of vegetative state.


My science teacher found a most successful way of doing it when we were going by bus to Switzerland from England. She made us all prepare talks on the finer points of atomic physics.

¦M¦

I'm not alowed to listen to my personal CD player in the car because it's "antisocial", as if i'm going to contribute to fantastic conversation on a car journey.

Ha ha ha... my 12 year old cousin listens to his personal cd player in the car-- even if the drive is a two-minute one. If his car companions begin to laugh over an anecdote or some scenario, he'll pull the earphones off and ask me to explain "what's so funny".

Hee hee hee...

Hey!! I'm a teenager, and I personally find that very offensive!

I normally just read ... and read ... and sleep.

I gaze out the window into nothingness....it's quite interesting, really!

Gooday everyone,

How to deal with teenagers on a long trip? The question should be 'why take teenagers on a long trip', or any other sort of trip. If they have to be conveyed from one place to another, let them use their initiative and catch a bus, or hitch-hike, or whatever, but why on earth would you want them in the car with you?

Walter.

First i want to reply to 31x. You are vey lucky. If I try to read in a Car i get carsick.


Then i wan to reply to walter... ....I CAN REACH YOU BACK THERE!!!

Gooday Clipboard,

Oh no you can't!! Take care,

Walter.

OH YES WE CAN....*swats Walter with *

Gooday Cafram,

Ouch! That's why it is not a good idea to have teenagers in the car with you - or anywhere else, for that matter - they distract one from paying proper attention to important things like driving, enjoying life and getting to spend one's hard-earned money on OURSELVES. Take care,

Walter.

Damn right. Give me a CD player (with anti-skip of course or it's useless in a car) and a good book and I'm set. A pillow would be nice too but you can't always have everything. I think the problem is what to do with parents who have the need to keep inturrupting my listening and reading!!

Idhan

Amen to that, and I'm not even a teenager anymore. I can't even tell you the number of times I've sat peacefully in the back of my parents' car during some road trip without end, deeply engrossed in a book or listening to some tunes on my Walkman, only to be asked some absolutely inane question by one of my parents. So I patiently answer whatever question they've come up with, then return to my previous quiet pastime, only to be interrupted yet again with (you guessed it) another stupid question. And it's not like what they're asking has any relevance to the trip or the current time. It always seems to be something from left field, "Did Mrs. Ogg tell you that she wants to paint her outhouse blue?" or "Did you realize that Ramtop Pines are non-deciduous?" The best I can do is give monosyllabic answers, and hope that my parents find me to be such a boring conversationalist they'll leave me alone. (It hasn't happened yet, but I can still dream, can't I?)