3 Tips For Preparing Your Teen For Their First Solo Road Trip

Having a teen driver can be both a blessing and a curse. While you’re no longer the one who has to chauffeur them around to school, practice, social events and more, you also have to trust your teen to be behind the wheel on their own or with friends in the car. Hopefully, you were able to teach your teen how to be safe and smart when driving a vehicle around your town. And while these principles ring true no matter where they go, preparing your teen driver to take a road trip without you can be a different story. So to help ensure that your teen is safe on their journey and that you can have a little less anxiety back at home, here are three tips for preparing your teen for their first solo road trip.

Make A Plan With Them

Before your teen hits the road for their first solo road trip, it’s a smart idea for you both to make a plan together about where they’ll go and when they plan to be there. According to Melissa Popp, a contributor to TripSavvy.com, you should teach your teen to always keep someone in the loop for their travel plans when road tripping, even if they aren’t living at home with you anymore. Just having someone who knows about where they’ll be and when can help them feel safer when on the road in an unfamiliar place.

Pack Healthy and Easy Snacks

If your teen is going to be on the road for hours or days at a time, it’s important that they have snack and drinks that can keep their energy up without causing them to get too distracted from the road. According to Allie Early, a contributor to Paste Magazine, you should help you teen pack easy snacks that won’t tie up their hands or take their eyes off the road for more than a second or two. This means getting drinks with easily accessible straws, food that doesn’t need to be opened or unwrapped much, and things that won’t spill or cause too much of a mess.

Start Looking For Gas When You Reach Half A Tank

Along with teaching your teen some basic car maintenance in the event that something small should happen while they’re on the road, Elizabeth Enochs, a contributor to Bustle, shares that you should also give the advice that your teen start looking for a gas station to fill up at once their gas gauge reaches half a tank. By getting gas around this time, you’ll ensure that your teen doesn’t run out of gas, get desperate enough to pay too much for gas when they’re empty, or have to stop in an area that might seem unsafe.

If you have a teen that’s going to be going on a road trip soon, consider using the tips to prepare them for this time on the road without you.