What can a teenager do on his days off?
Hello! Thanks for checking out my question, I hope to have many great ideas from this!
Here's the basics- teenage boy 14 years old, w/us every other week. Very active, very into games, sometimes imaginative, sometimes surprisingly super unimaginative!
Spring break is a couple months away, then a few months after that BAM! Summer break!
There have been a few weeks where W has had 3 and 4 day weekends from school (not to mention xmas break!)
And you know what he did 90% of the day, every day? Video games! How can anyone sit on their butt in one spot and stare at a screen all day? Even when I was little I got bored and went to find something else to do! But I think this one is going to need a little push.
I remember when he was little, he would much rather spend his time talking to me while we cooked, or trying to help his dad with household projects, now, nope, video games have taken over!
During his breaks he has the option of coming to work with us, (we own our own auto repair shop) or staying home. He's not interested in coming to the shop, not even when we offer to pay him for working.
He may be allowed to play his games all day at his moms house, but I think it's time for a change at our house. He has a 3 hour limit on non-school days, but he doesn't mind it, and I'll admit I'm not very good at monitoring it, but I also feel, he's old enough now to do it himself.
So here's my questions:
What can he do, instead of video games?
I am open to all ideas of course. I am going to be fairly picky though, no ladders or oven use while he's home alone. So I'll categorize what he can do alone and what he can do while he's supervised.
How can we handle the time limits for screen time? How do you know if they are playing late into the night, when your sleeping? How do you know if they've spent all their time while your working, just playing?
*Sigh* Problems like these make me hate this town a little more all the time (please don't nit-pick that statement). I'm sure a lot of ideas would be, get him a membership to the rec center, drop him off at the roller rink, let him go to the movies with a friend, etc. etc. all things I got to do growing up, but this town does not offer any of it. One puny 2 screen theater and an ancient pool only open for a few hours during the summer months. That is IT. There is no other sources of entertainment for the youngsters here. There is only 2 clubs, one for little kids, and one for religious kids, which only meets twice a week.
It'd be really cool if he could find someway of earning money. A job is a good thing for someone his age to experience, but there is little here for that as well. Plus being with us only every other week crosses out some options, and the fact that he'll be into track and football when they come around, will make it so he can't have anything where he totally commits his time for a long time.
That's enough for now. Pour your ideas at me please! Thank you.