Spring Break 101

Better Homes and Gardens, March 2009

You thought your teen's soaring stress levels were worrisome, until she presented her idea of a breather: a spring break trip with friends, no parents allowed.

Now you're the one who's stressed. Should you let your soon-to-be-college-student travel without you? It's a decision more parents are struggling to make.

The traditional spring break trip, once a rite of passage reserved exclusively for the college crowd, has become increasingly common among high schoolers. A recent travel-industry study found that more than 70 percent of adolescents had taken a non-family group trip in the past 12 months. But don't presume these trips are decadent and irresponsible. "The spring break trips every parent thinks of -- the MTV party trips -- have gone down significantly in popularity," says Michael Palmer, executive director of the Student and Youth Travel Association (SYTA), an industry trade association. "The number of students going to Cancun now is about half what it was in 2000." Now, instead of party trips, more teens are finding a broader range of experiences open to them, taking school trips abroad or vacations that combine lying on the beach with volunteering or touring historical sites.

That shift is a good thing, say experts, who agree that spring break trips to sunny locales like Panama City or Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, can lead to big trouble, from binge drinking and casual sex to car accidents and run-ins with the law. But there are still some teens clamoring for a traditional spring break bash -- and a rundown of potential dangers may not deter them from wanting to go.

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