Question re: pre-teen kids

My wife and I will be taking our family to CP for 3 or 4 days in a few weeks. We have 3 kids, Boy (12) Girl (11) and Girl (3).

The problem we're having is how to make the trip enjoyable for all of the kids as well as us. We know that we'll definitely spend some time with all 5 of us together. But because of the wide range in ages we know there will be times we will not be together.

I'm thinking we can give the 2 older kids a Motorolla and let them go where they want, when they want as long as they keep us updated as to where they are, while my wife and I entertain the little one. My wife is worried about doing that and think one of us should be with them at all times. I think they're a bit more responsible than most kids their age and will be ok to do this.

Any thoughts or suggestions?! Anyone else been in this situation? What did you do?

I know it isnt the 80's anymore but my parents let me and my sister go by ourselves from that age.

I still remember - "Meet at the Eiffel Tower at Noon!" or for CP it was always the Ferris Wheel. (The Double Ferris Wheel until they removed it)

Nowadays with walkie talkies etc, I would be comfortable when my kids reach that age letting them go. Right now at 6 and 3, we pretty much leave them at grandma's one day and then bring them one day for nothing but Camp Snoopy and the other kids areas.

It really depends on the kids. There are some who would be fine on their own, there are others that get into trouble as soon as supervision leaves. If they have a radio with them (or even better, a cell phone) and a watch, you can have scheduled check in times. Either every half or hour. Either you try to reach them, or they try to reach you.

Have a central meeting place (I suggest the where the corkscrew passes over the midway) and schedule 2 or 3 face-to-face check-ins a couple hours apart. Meal times and leaving usually work good for these.

This can also be the place where if they need to find you (for whatever reason) you can be sure to meet here after making contact on the radio.

I know when I was going with a church group around that age, we were allowed to go off on our own and had to do the same meeting up with the chaperones at set times.

I'm 14 and my friend is 15 and he went with my family to CP. My dad, my mom, my little sister(6) and my little brother(8). My parents were basicly in the same situation. My mom didn't trust us and my dad thought we would be fine. My dad ended up being with my friend and I and my mom stayed back with my younger siblings. After about 5 hours of riding alot of the coasters, we met up with my mom and my younger siblings. Then my mom let us ride one ride at a time, then we had to call them to let them know that we were off. What my parents disided worked out pretty good. If you let them go with eachother, like you said, give them a cell phone or a walkie-talkie.
*** Edited 8/3/2006 2:48:56 PM UTC by rFo628***
*** Edited 8/3/2006 2:49:49 PM UTC by rFo628***

One other thing I would suggest (just from personal experience growing up). Make sure they KNOW you are putting your trust in them. Make sure they KNOW that this will determine what kind of freedoms they get in the future. Make sure they KNOW it will hurt you if they break that trust. And make sure they know this ahead of time and that anything they do to break that trust between now and then will eliminate their freedom at the park and they will have to hang out with Mom or Dad all day.

Also, make sure they know they can go to any employee if they feel unsafe about anything or if something happens. If they get lost, they can go to any employee (someone with a nametag on, not just a CP shirt).

We're also staying at Breakers right in the park which makes it even easier for meeting each other. I've basically said we can have them meet us at the Power Tower since you can see it from anywhere in the park and the hotel is right there behind it.

I don't see them getting into trouble when they're left alone to go ride. The only problems would be when the 11 year old wants to ride something her brother wont ride.

Thanks for the input. Keep it coming! Maybe I can show this to my wife and we can let them go on their own.

Will you or your wife ride the bigger stuff?

Maybe you can work it out where your son and daughter can ride together for a few hours, then when you meet, the son can hang out with the baby and one parent while your daughter goes with the other parent to ride the other stuff. Then let them go back on their own later.

JuggaLotus said:
One other thing I would suggest (just from personal experience growing up). Make sure they KNOW you are putting your trust in them. Make sure they KNOW that this will determine what kind of freedoms they get in the future. Make sure they KNOW it will hurt you if they break that trust. And make sure they know this ahead of time and that anything they do to break that trust between now and then will eliminate their freedom at the park and they will have to hang out with Mom or Dad all day.

Also, make sure they know they can go to any employee if they feel unsafe about anything or if something happens. If they get lost, they can go to any employee (someone with a nametag on, not just a CP shirt).

I don't have any kids yet, but I've worked with teens and pre-teens in church groups for years. I've even chapperoned a few CedarPoint trips.

Firstly, Jugga is right on the money - those are all GREAT tips.

Secondly, Give them limited freedom and lay down some further ground rules. Let them know that they are not allowed to hang out with other kids that haven't come in their party. Peer pressure is just way too strong - they might do something everyone would regret. Also, make sure they know where and when to meet up with you at a few points throughout the day (i.e. - 12:00 noon at the waterball fountain for lunch, 5:00PM at the entrence to Millennium Force just to check-in and maybe grab a bite to eat, etc.).

Obviously, the specific meeting points' locations and times dont matter much, but having been on both sides of the scenario, kids feel like they have quite a bit of room to breathe, but they now you're checking on them throughout the day.

With that said, CP was without a doubt my favorite place in the world because of the freedom I had all day. I decided what I did and when (except for those 3 chek-in times) and loved every second of it.

Great suggestions Jugga! I've already talked to them about this and told them that we are thinking of letting them go on their own while we're at CP but what they do now can change that. They've been pretty good and have even been "trying" to clean up after themselves. If only I would have thought of this from the start of the summer!

Also, yes my wife and I will want to ride the bigger rides and will be with them at points to do that. My son doesn't ride everything so there will be things that my wife and I will have to (and want to) ride with the 11 year old. We're also going to do the child swap for the rides both my wife and I want to ride. So this arrangement wont be for the entire time. It will only be for a few hours here and there.

i saw embed a GPS device inside them and carry around a pocket PC so you can monitor their whereabouts all day. :)

seriously though, my parent's like to threaten us and it worked. we would never be allowed back to the point if we messed up. so, of course, we were angels. make sure you follow through with any sort of punishment you threaten though. i can't stand when parents keep saying they're going to take something away and then never do.

I would suggest utilizing the cedar point message center located in lost persons in kiddie kingdom. show them where it is when you all go in the park.. that way if for some reason they lose cell phone reception, or their walkie talkie battery dies, or they loose the phone etc, you can still relay messages. you can also drop off or receive messages at Town Hall. The workers at town hall and kiddie kindgdom relay the messages back and forth for you.

I'm not so sure these days if it's my own kids that I would worry about, but other people. There's some strange characters out there.

*cough*jugga*cough* ;)

One thing to add, don't do as my father did in late June when he took me, my brother, & my two sisters to the Point. Having meeting points every 1.5 hours will not work, especially when waiting in lines such as TTD and MF. One ride and then go back? Of course this was a Saturday, but still. That and I had no clock on my person, which really would help, or phone, and thus had to walk back to the very back from around frontier town at times just to find a clock, then walk to the front after one ride. Ouch. Walkie talkies and watches are definate musts, else you'll have problems. I eventually was able to break away with my bro who is 18 so my dad couldn't really yell at me. :)

He said I wouldn't like TTD, and hey, I LOVED it!! He was too afraid of something, no idea what, he said my head would fall off. Weirdo.

And I'm barely 14. :O

If you're going to let them have cell phone or walkie talkie, a plastic zip bag is a must. That way they can ride...the only two water rides left.

Infact, I did that this afternoon, but at Kings Island. :)

Umm, the walkie talkies dont work so well as there are a limited numbers of channels available on them and A LOT of people at Cedar Point have them, we tried them once (on a 28 or 30 channel set) and could not find one channel that was free of nonstop traffic... they were essentially useless as there were way too many people using them... mostly for fun and play... (kids chatting, everyone pressing the 'page' button, etc...)

If you have cellular phones, that may be a much better idea...

Yeah, the walkie talkies tend to be quite busy, and don't even try them unless you have a security code of some sort.

The other problem with the radios is the limited range. You won't get all the way from one end of the park to the other with a standard FRS or GMRS radio.

For communication, a cell phone is a much better option. But when I was young and didn't want to hang out with my parents, we didn't have cell phones or radios. But I always had a watch!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I think as long as they know there way around the park, they will be fine. Im almost 16 and can go around by myself. Its a big park, but you can easily find your way around it.

Ham Radios are awesome for communication. They'll cover the park AND county. ;)

rFo628 said:

Top 5 Rides
1. Millennium Force
2. Raptor
3. Top Thrill Dragster
4. Magnum XL-200
5. Project 2007?

way to steal my sign...