What do your teens do during the school holidays if you work?

[cityrookie]

Looking for ideas, mainly for my DS with ASD for whom most day camps are not an option, but also for my other DC who can cope with clubs and camps (day and residential).

Gaming all day or being out totally unsupervised is also not suitable, although I think half a day gaming and half out if one parent is wfh would probably be manageable.

I'm debating trying to set him up with a weeks work experience 😳but don't know if this is a feasible solution!

I sympathise, young teens need as much supervision as youngsters but in a different way. My grandson, just turned 16, discovered fishing this summer so was out most days with friends doing that (had to check in regularly and knew where the physical boundaries were) but this was his first holiday of freedom really.

When he was 14/15 , he went out with boring granny, stayed over at his (even more boring) dad's or gamed all morning and then met up with designated friends for designated activities (cinema, burger, etc). He took up running for a while with some fitbit/tracker so mum knew where he was or went to his rugby club and kicked a ball about with friends but all remotely supervised. Where they live has little pockets of semi-feral youths so it's always been a worry. Do they play any sport and could join a local club or gym? His school used to have 'athletics weeks' but he took some persuading and a yummy packed lunch! Good luck!

I spent all day, everyday at home entertaining myself in the holidays from the age of 12.

By the time I'd woken up, showered and had some breakfast it was nothing like a whole day - maybe 4-5 hours until a parent came home.

If one of you is WFH I'm not sure why you'd need to arrange any activities.

Mine sleeps, goes to the beach and meets up with friends.
Goes out walking/cycling about with friends and to parks.
Probably what you would call feral.
When not doing that he will be sailing, swimming, activity weeks, away with Sea Cadets.

Sleep mainly.
Read, homework, walk the dog, watch telly, some gaming, some social media (limited), baking and mess up the kitchen / my diet.
Go to the shops for flimsy reasons (sometimes provided by me) which allow them to buy bubble tea / snack whatever
Hang out with friends at the shops or in the park. Or go to friends’ house and do any of the above.

Now 15 catching the train on own to visit family and close friends in other cities. But this only just started this year. I’ve been training / preparing him on how to do train travel solo for a few years though.

It would never occur to me to feel a need to "entertain" a teenager in the holidays, including my AuDHD SD14. When I'm on AL we obviously go out places, otherwise she has to find things to do for herself. My Mum used to leave a list of chores. 😂If you don't want them on games all day, turn the wifi off at set times.

Excessive gaming and YouTube and his behaviour nose dives. He's never been able to "entertain himself" without some input. DC has no friends, cannot swim (dyspraxia) and cannot ride a bike on the road unsupervised (no concept of danger/road safety). Cooking is hit and miss (safety reasons) and needs to be supervised.

DC 2 would have no issue organising something for herself but I don't want her to end up responsible for DC1 by default.

We can't cover the whole week wfh which is why I'm after ideas I might not have thought of.