I remember feeling a little melancholy as I started my senior year of high school. Knowing I had one year until I left for college was exhilarating, but it also made me wonder if I’d had the full high school experience. Sure, I’d gone to Friday night football games and dances, but what had I missed? Fast-forward a year and a half. I was trudging through my first semester of college, working 20 hours a week, and rarely having the energy to go to football games. I felt like a 30-year-old freshman. I wished I had lived a little more when I had the chance.
If you have a teen, or—even better—a budding teen, creating a teenage bucket list is a great way to help him or her get the most out of these years. You can’t make it for them, but by asking your teens these 12 questions, you can help them create a teenage bucket list that will leave them (and hopefully you) with great memories.
You know your child best, so feel free to add more questions to your brainstorming session. We also provided some ideas for what items might end up on your teenage bucket list.
1. What local spots have you not been to?
Every town has something that makes it special, whether it’s a family-owned restaurant or a cheesy tourist spot.
Visit the local history museum.
2. What’s a food you haven’t tried but want to?
What does your teen want you to cook or what restaurant does he or she want to hit up?
Try that new Indian place with Mom and Dad.
3. What’s something you’d like to do with friends before you go in separate directions?
Coordinating schedules after high school is tricky. This question can help teens come up with that one thing they have to do with friends before it’s too late.
Have a slumber party with sleeping bags, popcorn, pizza, and old movies.
4. Who is someone to whom you have something important to say?
If a teen has hurt a classmate and needs to apologize, there’s no time like the present. Conversely, if teens have teachers or mentors who have made a difference in their lives, encourage them not to waste another day.
Write a thank-you note to Mrs. Graves for not giving up on you in calculus class.
5. What’s a great memory from when you were little that we could recreate?
When I was little, my mom and I would go to the mall early in the morning and walk. Then we’d grab a slice of Cuban toast. That mall closed after I left for college. I wish we could’ve done it one more time.
Have a scavenger hunt like we did when I was a kid.
6. What part of nature fascinates you most?
A teen’s answer to this question could reveal your next great family vacation.
Take a family camping trip to the mountains.
7. What’s something you want to experience with your family before you’re grown?
Sure, kids are itching to grow up, but you never know what their youthful hearts want to do with mom and dad while they can. Once you’re done making their teenage bucket list, make one for the two of you. We have ideas on a printable bucket list for moms and sons and one for moms and daughters.
Have a family game night and eat banana splits.
8. What’s something you want to learn?
Archery? Guitar? Horseback riding? I think of all the things I wish I knew how to do and regret that I didn’t learn them while my parents were willing to foot the bill.
Take a self-defense class.
9. Are the activities you’re in now fulfilling you, or is there something new you’d like to try?
Some kids are afraid to tell their parents they are tired of playing the sport or instrument they’ve played since age five. Here’s your kid’s chance to try something new.
Try out for the school play.
10. Is there something fun or different you’d like to do with your appearance?
My mom, my sister, and I got the top of our ears pierced when I graduated from high school. Guiding your teens through adventurous moments with appropriate boundaries is a great way to build trust with them.
Cut off my hair and go red!
Guiding your teens through adventurous moments with appropriate boundaries is a great way to build trust with them.
Guiding your teens through adventurous moments with appropriate boundaries is a great way to build trust with them. Click To Tweet11. What have you been afraid to do but think you should do so you have no regrets?
Getting a nudge from Mom might be the thing that gives your teen the courage to try that thing he or she’s been afraid to do.
Ask _____ out to a movie.
12. What’s a cause you want to get behind?
Instill a love of service and performing acts of kindness in your teen now and you could create a lifelong giver.
Volunteer for Meals on Wheels.
If you could go back in time, what would you have put on your teenage bucket list?
