Mother - daughter hobby ideas

[Borris]

Looking for inspirations for things that I can do with DD aged 13 to drag away from screens.

We always dog walk (under duress but it happens) and sometimes include a cafe or ice cream. Sometimes go to the beach to bodyboard. Sometimes bike ride. But today was miserable weather so we spent about an hour doing some board games but if I'm honest I think we were both a bit bored. It's only the 2 of us so games don't seem that fun, whereas we really enjoy them when in larger groups.

Any suggestions?

Golf? - a good session on the driving range is fun, and undercover.
My teens enjoy 9 holes on the council owned course, and I got a couple of sets of club's from eBay.

Music. Gong to see bands play. Or playing instruments.

I take my teen daughter to hobbycraft and we choose a painting kit or mini cross stitch kit or anything we fancy. We've tried all sorts of crafts together. We really enjoy it, sit at the kitchen table with Alexa on and have a chat

My suggestion is crochet, if you don't already know how you could learn together. My DD2 started learning at the same age, we made her first cardigan together and she'd made lots of amirigumi animals for herself and friends. It's no longer seen as a grandma thing, look up Sam Ryder and Harry Styles who wear homemade crochet or knitted outfits, and it's all over tiktok/youtube.

If you're trying to drag her away from screens, then try asking her what she fancies doing.

Shopping with lunch out was always a hit with my girls, but that isn't really a hobby.

Learn to crochet or knit or sew? - loads of tutorial videos on you tube.
Diamond art, drawing, painting?

Me and my daughter have joined a local Ultimate Frisbee club. Really welcoming and all ages and people join in, it's a good leveller in terms of skill and it's fun.

My 13 will come to watch literally any live music with me, that's always a really easy win. Shopping, nandos, Costa, escape rooms, pay for entry arcades...weirdly she is very into laser tag and always gets the highest score of the day. Go karts, crazy golf, cinema, we spent a while trying to learn to do acrylic nails off youtube.
It's hard though...things she enjoys are expensive or she would rather do with her mates. I host a LOT of sleepovers these days. She wants me to get a horse to share with her but I can't justify the time and expense..

Oh wow lots of different ideas. Thanks.

I like the crochet idea. Neither of us have done it before, but we do enjoy some Christmas crafting so that might be a good idea.

We do have a golf course nearby but have never been . Will see if they do taster sessions.

Likewise ultimate frisbee - definitely not something I'd have thought of!

Music is something that we do. Unfortunately (for me) she is very into a band that I can tolerate but don't particularly enjoy. I do try to encourage her to expand her musical tastes but she's at that obsessed, blinkered stage! We do play piano together sometimes.

Shopping would be her dream day out! We do from time to time but obviously can't really be a weekly thing!

Oh yes she likes the expensive stuff - water parks, paddle board hire, escape rooms - but that's more holiday treat rather than regular weekend stuff

I volunteer at my daughter's scouts.

My DH and daughter go running together

Some things that work well with my nieces of a similar age:

• going to get nails done
• giving each other manicures / pedicures (I usually let them practice some fairly garish nail art, but they enjoy it!)
• craft kits - diamond art, macrame, jewellery making, friendship bracelet making (something to do with Taylor Swift apparently), pottery painting
• baking
• face masks / snacks / film on
• Jigsaw puzzles

It also always goes down well if I let them choose the music that is playing and I love it when they show me what they like listening to.

One of my nieces loves wild swimming, so we do that quite often (her parents don’t let her go on her own so I get dragged along as the aunt who spoils her)

We did kick boxing

Dd and I loved making a meal together when she was a teenager. I usually let her choose the recipe, then go shopping together for ingredients, cook it together, then eat.

Card games can be good when there’s only two, we used to play Rummy.

And second jigsaws for long winter nights. You can often get them in charity shops for a couple of pounds. They’re slightly addictive!

I used to play badminton with DS, Dd loves a spa day, they both bake with me.

If she likes paddle boarding then maybe boards for Christmas if you could afford them? They are selling at under £200 at the minute. Then you don’t have the hire costs which are often around £25, so they soon pay for themselves - especially if you are near lots of free lakes and coast like we do here in North Wales.

Other, cheaper, activities:
Nail art and design
Geocaching (or even Pokémon Go!)
At home spa day - massages, bubble baths, faces masks etc.
Martial arts or self defence classes
Scrapbooking / vision boards
Volunteering/ fundraising challenge.

There are escape room style board games/puzzle books if you like both escape rooms and board games.

You could learn to do cryptic crosswords together.

Treasure Trails are a really fun and quite cheap alternative to escape rooms.

We do puzzles together. Nice activity in the winter. Light the fire, put an audible book on. It got us through some awkward teenage years when communicating was difficult.

Most gyms will allow teens at certain times. My DD is older now but we have gone to the gym together from early teens. Somewhere with a pool and cafe is the icing on top. Pilates or yoga classes will often allow teens too.

Near to me they have mother/daughter cupcake decorating classes.

As PP, I often book a badminton court for an hour. I also go roller skating/roller disco with DD9.

You could look at colleges/Adult education centres to see if they're running any weekend craft courses around this time of year ours start doing xmas sewing sessions where you go for 2-3 hours and make a decoration, or a wreath making day, baking etc

When I was a kid we'd start a longer term project over several weekends, we did latch hook rugs and re-upholstered an old chair, sanded down and painted a chest of drawers...