Pia Miranda: An open letter to every parent struggling to connect with their tweens.

Thanks to our brand partner, Hyundai

Pia Miranda is no stranger to connecting with people. It's what she does for a job after all. She's an actress, an author, a television personality and — perhaps the most challenging of all — a mum too.

Pia's kids — Lily (14 years old) and Jimmy (11 years old) — have recently hit the "tween" age. While she recognises that it's important to connect with kids across their whole lives, Pia told me it's more critical than ever at this age.

When speaking to Pia about her thoughts on parenting tweens, I noticed she kept coming back to the same metaphor — the image of filling up a well.

"Parents, and especially working parents, can have so much guilt around not having enough time with their kids," she told me. "I know that sometimes I do feel guilty, but it's about finding the moments where you can fill the well when the well feels empty. It's about recognising when that well of connection is a little low and finding ways to top it back up." 

And filling up that well becomes more crucial the more time kids spend on their phones. 

"It's an interesting discussion about kids on phones," Pia told me. "We were locked down for so long in Melbourne, and the only way my kids could connect with their friends was online."

"It's meant I need to be super checked-in with what they're doing and let them know that I'm always checking in. I don't want them to feel like I'm spying, but I do have access to everything they do. I tell them that whatever they put out on the internet, they should imagine on a billboard or on their work resume — it stays there forever." 

Critically, she knows that getting kids offline and making family memories is one of the most important ways to ensure they don't fall into negative habits online. 

"I spend a lot of time with my kids so that, if I need to go away, we've had that time together," she said. For Pia, work trips are a fairly regular occurrence.

Pia competed on Dancing With The Stars last year, and has recently finished filming The Big Trip, a reality television series where four teams race across Australia to reach the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Filming The Big Trip took Pia away from her kids for a while, but she's come home with more ideas than ever on how to drag them away from their screens. 

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A post shared by Pia Miranda (@_piamiranda)

Pia raves about her experience on The Big Trip, citing seeing whales and dolphins in Ceduna, Australia's oyster capital, as one of the highlights.

She loved driving cross-country across Australia in a Hyundai EV on the show. "I've never been more excited about a car in my life," she laughed. "The whole electric vehicle thing is a game-changer for road-tripping. We're stopping less, it's better for the environment, it's just great."

The beauty of an EV? When you do need to stop, you can explore quirky small towns, venture into the shops and refuel with a coffee — all while the car is charging.

Pia also explained that the Hyundai EV allowed her and her teammate, Lydia Lassila, to visit places in iconic Aussie terrain that might have seemed off-limits for EVs — proving that this was definitely not the case!

Image: Instagram/@_piamiranda.

More than anything, The Big Trip has made Pia reflect on the value of taking road trips with her own kids, and encouraged her to plan another one in the near future. 

"I just love a road trip," she told me. "I'm lucky because my kids are older now and they can join me and really get into them. I'm a real activity person. There's nothing my kids and I love better than stopping off at a little town and going to their local bakery. You'll see if you watch The Big Trip — my whole modus operandi is bakeries!" 

"My kids and I all really love souvenir shops, and we collect magnets. It's the little things like that. We love to drive somewhere and go for a beautiful walk, visit a place we've never been before and just follow our noses."

I asked her about the specific things her family does to connect with each other on road trips, and she told me (no pun intended) that with tweens and teenagers, "you let them drive, so to speak". 

"A road trip is a really good way to find out what your teens and tweens are interested in, even just what kind of music they like. Let them drive the playlist and see. My daughter actually got me into Tyler The Creator while we were in the car and now that's what we listen to on drives."

"Other than that, I just always ask questions and am interested in the answers."

In summary? When it comes to taking tweens on road trips as a chance to fill up that metaphorical well, it's a resounding "yes" from Pia. 

"Even if it's just a day trip in summertime, it's going to be worthwhile. For our teens, there's a lot of stressful and scary stuff going on in their worlds. It's nice to just be involved in stuff that's offline and just about having fun." 

Check out The Big Trip on Channel 7 to watch Pia explore Australia from west to east. Ready for your own road trip? Check out Hyundai's Hybrid and All-Electric range.

Feature Image: Instagram/@_piamiranda.

When Hyundai's founder, Chung Ju-Yung, was told something was impossible, he had a simple reply: "How do you know if you haven't tried it?" That same spirit continues to drive Hyundai today as the brand embarks on its latest journey. The IONIQ 5 N, KONA Electric, SANTA FE Hybrid, and TUCSON N Line Hybrid were put to the ultimate test, driving 3,930 kilometers across Australia's iconic rugged terrain. The result? A bold adventure and a stunning showcase of the wild and wonderful places Hyundai vehicles can take you.