What do your teen boys do at home that doesnt involve a screen?

[ThumbTowers]

I have two young teen sons (14,12). All they seem to want to do at home is gaming or messing about on their phones. I'd really like them to be doing something else, but once the screens are off they are lost, bored, argue with each other etc. What do your teens do to occupy their time at home?

Both belong to a number of sport/hobby clubs that they attend outside of school, so they are active and have variety. But it's the hours spent actually in the house that I am concerned by here. I know they could be reading, painting etc but, in reality, what is it that your teens spend their time at home doing?

OP asked what they do at home, not what they do in their free time.

2 of the 3 things I said are in the home (she didn’t say they can’t go in the garden). HTH.

Homework
playing sports in the garden, mainly basketball and football
pool and table tennis
bit of cooking
music practice
some chores and gardening when asked
playing with pets
sometimes board games and card games

i Agree with PP that some screens are better than others. I don’t allow gaming or mindless scrolling on phones during the day in school holidays but watching a film or watching live sport is ok.

Chores
Weights /punch bag
But mainly gaming, although he dies stand up to play.

Sport classes 3 evenings a week and goes to spectate various sports most weekends.

When I'm not doing chores I'm mainly looking at a screen too.

13 cooks, lifts weights, builds replica Marvel stuff out of cardboard, plays out with friends, plays nerf dodge etc
11 builds shit ton of Lego, likes to rearrange his room which just means pulling everything out of place and leaving it, we play top trumps or other board games.

We watch A LOT of TV though, we live in a country with no piracy laws so have a firestick with a ridiculous amount of movies/shows to stream.

My 12 year old spends a lot of time trampolining

Two teen girls the same age here and they are similar.

Dd1 does puzzles, listens to music, puts make up on or reads. She would watch TV/YouTube all day if she could. She does spend a reasonable amount of time doing homework.

Dd2, lies in bed reading, puts make up on, listens to music, likes to do little craft things, or paint random stuff with posca pens, she will bake with me sometimes, also likes very long showers. Recently she had been playing with dolls (washing and cutting their hair mainly). Again though she would spend the entire time at home on her phone, and constantly complains of being bored before choosing to do any of the above. She's also very good at making her homework stretch out for a very long time while using the laptop - in the living room so semi-supervised.

It only really causes a problem during school holidays, when they have extended time at home. Dd1's friends aren't big on meeting up outside of school. Dd2 does meet with friends sometimes. They both do two sports each so week to week are pretty busy and out of the house plenty. We also try and have a series on the go to watch a few nights each week. It is screen based but still social as everyone is watching the same thing.

Fair point. I apologise.

Model railway. Tinkering with things to “fix” them. A little bit of gaming but not a lot.

He draws and makes models out of anything he can find, he attempts science experiments that he’s seen online, plays chess, talks to me endlessly (mainly about online games though) eats things but yes, mainly just wants screen time.

Gym, Read, play guitar, go for long walks

jobs / chores
swing
trampoline
reading
audio books
music
walk dog
go to park to play basket ball or table tennis
cook dinner