Teen Rooms

Our women’s retreats are open for teenaged girls 7th grade and above.  Our pastor’s wife, Denise, believes that it is good for teen girls to participate in women’s retreats and that it helps them cross the bridge from youth to young women.  Both her daughter, and later my daughter attended many of our women’s retreats as young teens and now as young adults.  Speaking as a mom, I highly recommend it!  She was involved in youth activities at church.  However, the women’s retreats gave her an opportunity to see Jesus working in women’s lives, and hear from women other than her mother.    And of course, any opportunity to instill God’s Word into a young life is a good thing!

Sometimes the teens will attend the retreat and room with their moms.  However, every year we offer a “teen room” option, where the teens can be together in a room with a chaperone (or two chaperones, depending on the number of teens).   While we know the girls profit from the main sessions during the retreat, being together with those their own age gives them the option of sharing with other teens and participating in more teen activities.  Often, we will provide a workshop specifically for the teens.  If possible, we plan free time activities specifically geared to them.

We would offer a few guidelines as you open your retreat to teens:

• Of course, a parental permission slip is required for girls attending the retreat when their mother is not in attendance. If a teen attends without her mother, another woman who is attending must be designated as the responsible adult, and this is noted on the parental permission form (this could be the chaperone);
• Teens need to stay with their moms, or be with the teen group at all times;
• The teen chaparone(s) are not allowed to take the girls off the retreat property (i.e. going away for lunch or shopping during free time);
• We ask chaperones to ensure that teens are in attendance at all main sessions (usually three main teachings and the ending session with communion).

Rooming Options

Rooming options for women’s retreat may change, depending on the location of the retreat and what rooming options the hotel or retreat center has available.  While some women are willing to pay the higher price for two-to-a-room, we try to offer other options.  Normally, the cheapest option at a hotel would be four-to-a-room, where there are two queen-sized beds per room.  This means two ladies are sharing each bed.  The one challenge has been the sharing of beds, which we will address in our next post.

Other rooming options could include:

• Requesting a rollaway bed, if available;
• Special rooming for those accompanied by their nursing infant (not all women want to be in a room with an infant);
• Handicap room;
• Room close to the meeting room (specifically for those with mobility problems);
• Smoking room;
• Quiet room (we also provide ear plugs at the hospitality table should a problem arise).