what does your teenager do outside of school partic if you live rurally/they are reliant on you for transport

[teenageangst2023]

We are at a crossroads with DS who is y11 and 15.
He is bright and funny but we live quite rurally so he is reliant on us for transport.
I think he and we would like to widen his opportunities to do more stuff but it's hard to "hang out"
He goes to school in the local town and hangs out a bit before he gets the bus - but even then there is an element of "being an NPC" as he refers to it.
What do yours do?
He does an activity after school x 2 a week which we drive him to.

bump

Watching as will be in similar position too shortly!

School is 9 miles away. Rural.

What's NPC?

Are you rural like yours is the only house for miles or rural like in a village with other villages nearish by? I lived in a tiny village by the sea when DD was that age. She hung out with a girl from the village. Sometimes she they would get off the school bus a village early and walk along the cliff path before buying a hot chocolate (in the pub, but it was a community sort of place and they knew them) then walk up to one of our house or their house to hang out.
Otherwise she went to a friend’s after school and I picked her up later/she stayed over, or they would come to us (same arrangements).

St John Ambulance cadets and did duties and other activities from that

Played in a band and socialised with some of the people from that plus concerts

Did a martial art that had classes in the village

Spent ages at a friends who lived close to school gaming in his basement before getting the train at ridiculous o clock and ringing me to pick him up.

Booze, vapes and weed, mainly. Same as city kids but more of it/more frequently as fewer other things to do.

Rides 2 evenings a week and spends all day Saturday at the yard with her horsey friends

Non Player Character. Like the characters in a game who are programmed in rather than actual players. So he's there, but not really 'there' and involved.

Not rural, but we would still drop and collect ours from things whilst they were school age.

Between them, at that sort of age they did:
Explorers - including camps and activities outside of their meeting nights (all did)
Young Leader stuff (so helping at Beavers / Cubs) - all did
One played football in a team, so matches and training.
One did drama
One still had music lessons
One did climbing
One was 16 at the start of Yr11, and did lifeguarding (paid work)
(That's 3 dc)

Went shooting, fishing, beekeeping, learning about conservation, country crafts and skills, gardening, canoeing on local rivers, birdwatching, botany, colllecting natural history specimens (ie feathers, animal skulls, owl pellets, taxidermy), making jams, jellies and chutneys, - dozens of useful and educational things to do!

One of mine has a job, they both do their sport two to three times a week. They play music, have friends round, sometimes go round to their houses

Before heading to uni there was obscene amounts of music, drums, guitar and bass guitar mostly but with occasional forays into things like pan-pipes.

Working in the local pub

Scouts

He didn't choose to live rurally so DH and I facilitated lifts wherever possible, and he had friends who also lived rurally so we often lift shared. He also passed his driving test as soon as he could once he turned 17 (there was a delay due to Covid)

He's in London now and "living his best life" as they say so doesn't seem to have suffered too much for his sheltered start