Originally Posted by
Kestrel
Honestly, if they're old enough, let them do their own and have them deal with the results. You pack anything you can't deal with being without - like prescription meds, passports, ect - and let the chips fall. Very few things are deal-breakers.
I remember quite fondly when 12-year-old DS didn't pack enough shirts and got to sit by the washing machine at the RV park waiting for his clothes instead of watching a movie before bed. Lesson learned!
Ive tried that. In theory it sounds good, but it doesn’t really turn out like that. Instead of letting them deal with the consequences, they pilfer from my stuff and I THEN deal with the consequences. Apparently in the past, mom didn’t need her brush, toothpaste, conditioner (NEED IT for tangles. Critical.), charger cord for my watch, charger cord for my phone, or most critical of all, my Miralax. Or they just whine, stink and are poor sports. If they don’t pack well they don’t suffer. I’M the one who suffers.
In your situation, my kids wouldn’t have washed their clothes. They would have insisted they smelled fine and reminded me of their Boy Scout camping trip where they didn’t shower for 10 days other than a swim in lake water. And I’m too tired to argue with them. Teenagers!!
" I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent." Mahatma Gandhi
"This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the universe. It doesn't solve any problems." Martin Luther King, Jr.