Fun with teens

[TheChosenTwo]

Can anyone suggest anything that ds and I could do of an evening that doesn’t involve exercise?!
We were chatting last night and have decided to commit an evening together or a Sunday (with or without others, depending on what we decide on) where we go out and do… something.
probably an every other week thing as we are actually quite busy with our own sporting hobby’s but do have 2 free evenings a week currently.
We realised we mostly wear work/school clothes and then exercise clothes and that maybe we should find something else to do with our lives!
We aren’t fantastically located to have a wealth of things on our doorstep but if anyone could suggest anything they do I could look to see what’s available in our area or that we could get to.
He’s 15, I drive, we go out to eat quite regularly already, I sort of ruled out the cinema because I do find it boring but would consider most other things.
Bit of a random thread but hoping someone does something with their teen that we could try, a club or an event they go to together, a hobby, whatever.

How about indoor climbing? There's a climbing wall near us and I think it could be an activity that appeals to teens and adults. Then if you get really into it you could go on an outdoor climbing holiday sometime!

Board game night?
Just watch tv together with some treats? (Sounds passive but laughing or chatting together over a comedy or joining in with ‘have I got news for you’ or Googlebox etc can be incredibly bonding)

Quiz night somewhere? Bowling? Games arcade?

Yes pub quiz. Darts or pool - useful life skills :)

We have a board game called Dorf Romantik. It's a bit like Carcassonne but it's cumulative. The more games you play the more extra pieces you unlock and the more complicated it gets. It would work very well for a regular board game night.

I was going to say board games night and then maybe once every couple of months you could go and do an escape room?

Oh escape rooms is a great idea, we’ve done some of these and loved them, thanks!
also love the idea of pub quiz but suspect he’ll be too young maybe?
we’ve done climbing a few times, really enjoyed it - happy to suggest going again with him, although the conversation strangely came from talking about what clothes he might need and him saying that other than school and sports he doesn’t do anything 😂 so doesn’t really need anything else because he has jeans etc! Obviously he does so more than school and sports but I guess our lives could be squeezed primarily into those 2 categories. When then made a pact to ensure we do more ‘stuff’ together where we wear our normal clothes! He doesn’t have a wide friendship circle that he spends time with outside of school which he’s not bothered about, he has friends there and walks to/from school with them most days, happy to play football at the park with them from time to time but generally he’s at home otherwise. Dh and him go and watch football once or twice a week, he plays football twice a week, I go to the gym/swim with him twice a week and sometimes he and dh go to the snooker hall. Over the summer he and dh went to watch a couple of cricket at Lords. He’s quite sport focused and just really enjoys it but it’s made me question what else we could be doing together, he’s really good company and as our youngest we now have more time and energy and I don’t want to waste this opportunity.
Thanks for the suggestions so far, I’ll chat to him this evening. I also thought about the theatre.

Oh, and we’ve been really enjoying the traitors and I get snacks for us to have with it, it’s hard finding tv to bond over but this is perfect.
And board games night is good, we do those occasionally with our older dc, my sister and her boyfriend and which is a lot of fun.
Bowling is also a great shout, he does enjoy that.
Thanks everyone, he’s such a nice lad and I feel really lucky that he actively likes hanging out with dh and I, I didn’t want to do bugger all with my parents at his age!

It sounds like you really make the most of your time off, more then most people as it is. I honestly don't know how you do it. My eldest seemed to be permanently drowning in homework from Y8 onwards. (A good chunk of that was probably secretly watching TV programmes on her laptop, but I think she did spend quite a lot of time working too.)

Another thought, you might be already doing this anyway but cooking dinner together is nice if you have the time. Share your music in the background - have your son DJ, or play him an album you like.

All sounds great. One of the things I have really enjoyed with my teen has been to travel for (usually) just an overnight stay. You would need a weekend or extra school day off to aim for it, and this isn't often, but you can find some fairly reasonable tickets. We stayed overnight in Pisa in the winter (would love to go to lots of the museums with more time), and had a really different perspective from the hot weather season. And also Haarlem, between Amsterdam and the beach. The big change and feeling that things are 'out there' and you can do it has been a great thing for both of our ages!

Crazy golf, go to the beach and have lunch there, game of pool
or darts and food ?

@Goofish he probably gets about an hour a night, sometimes a little less and considering he’s home by 3:45 at the latest he has plenty of time to get it done, usually gets something to eat, half an hour of telly and then will get it done around existing commitments. He doesn’t need nagging either, just gets it done.

And yes I don’t think we spend much time sitting about twiddling our thumbs but I’m a big believer in having fun alongside the mundane - work/school are non negotiables but there are a lot of hours between finishing those and going to bed. Luckily I wfh a few days a week and dh is self employed so we’re around a fair bit and im happy to capitalise on it. Might book bowling for this evening now im thinking about it!

That would be right up all of our street but the main drawback is sports, he plays football on a Saturday morning and that’s a commitment he’s not keen to back out of (with good reason), and then him and dh have season tickets for our local team and where time permits they will go to the game in the afternoon often not back until 7/8pm for an away game, I do an activity on a Saturday and Sunday morning just just for an hour and can not do it if I have other plans.
and when it’s not football season (which is LONG!!) he plays cricket which is an even lengthier game on a Saturday or a Sunday with training midweek, usually twice.

It’s fine though, they are a part of our life, probably won’t always be - I make the most of the free time and will have weekends away 😂 but it’s why we are looking for an evening activity specifically, just because that’s the time we have available to us while honouring other commitments.

DS and I used to go somewhere on Sundays such as a castle or a certain area such as Liverpool waterfront. We would potter about and chat as we went. He is a history lover though so it was easy. We used to have such a lovely chilled time that was far removed from busy lives - visiting museums, walking castle gardens etc.

unfortunately he’s not that mad on walking but he can be convinced if there’s a pub lunch or similar involved! We do sometimes go to the coast on a wintry Sunday but haven’t done that in a while. Perhaps we’ll make an effort this weekend, we all enjoy the arcades and crazy golf.
I’ve tried in the past to entice him to castles but he’s never shown much of an interest, same for a lot of museums etc which is fair enough as I’m not overly keen myself. Wouldn’t rule it out though if he wanted to go.
Ive booked bowling this evening and invited my nephew along too for a bit of competition.
And he’s got a couple of inset days next month and I’m looking at booking the Mousetrap at the theatre, I took the dds at a similar age and they really enjoyed it. Would love to take him to see the woman in black but it’s no longer on 😭
okay thanks everyone, feels nice to have some solid things booked in to look forward to. I myself prefer to be spontaneous but such is life that everything requires rebooking now! Also we can be indecisive when we don’t have anything planned and end up doing nothing so at least that eliminates that.