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AIBU?

teens when they dont want to do what you do!!

41 replies

happygolucky0 · 31/03/2013 09:48

I brought Merlin passes for myself and my son last year. We used them last Easter and not again since. I wanted to get some more use out of them before they expire on the 8th April. I now have 3 days off and was thinking of staying in London with ds for a couple of nights. However he doesn't want to go.
Ds in 15 and a half.
A friend says leave him and go anyway. I am a lone parent so it would mean me going alone and him staying here alone. I don't really want to stay in doors for the next 3 days while he sits in front of screens.
I see there is 3 options stay home. Go and tell him he has to come (then maybe put up with him being stroppy). Or go for the day or two and leave overnight. I live abit far to just go for the day.
Ideas please?

OP posts:

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Gossipmonster · 31/03/2013 14:38

I would go to Thorpe Park not Chessington - Chessington is shit for teens.

inchoccyheaven · 31/03/2013 14:46

My dc are 10 and 12 and never want to go anywhere! They much rather hang around at home on ps3 or at their mates.
We have only been abroad once 6 years ago to see my Dad who lives abroad and haven't been taken on loads of trips when younger. Think they just take after me as I am a home body too.

moonabove · 31/03/2013 14:49

Don't say that happy! Not that I was planning to go to Disneyland...more of a road trip and visit family etc. I'm pretty sure ds will love it since he's never been anywhere more exotic than Cornwall.

I do think teens have a big issue with forced jollity and social niceties and so forth - sometimes you just have to get past that and realise that, in their own peculiar way, they are actually enjoying themselves. If he really just wants to chill then let it be.

FreyaSnow · 31/03/2013 14:49

I hadn't realised teens wouldn't want to go to theme parks. Maybe it is a thing of some of them having been many times. DS's main reason for passing exams is to get a good job so he has the money to go to Disneyland and Comic Con. And both my teens want to borrow a toddler so they can to the kids' activities that they're now too old for.

happygolucky0 · 31/03/2013 14:51

Still not getting anywhere so am going give up. Says he just wants to chill, which yes I get but he has the other 12 days to chill when I will be at work. Gosh this teen thing is hard work sometimes. I don't want to put a spanner in the works moonabove but ds still managed to be moody at Disney in the States last year! I can remember saying this is meant to be the happiest place on earth and you are grumpy!
Think I am going to plan a girls holiday (and get family to have him) with the pennies instead it is sounding better by the minute !!!!

OP posts:

Startail · 31/03/2013 15:07

I have a 15y DD she wouldn't think of passing on a trip to London.

Tell him from me qa he is a spoilt brat, he comes with you and be is nice and polite for the entire trip.

Startail · 31/03/2013 15:08

and I can't see what I am typing,there is actual sun on my screen.

Mrsrobertduvall · 31/03/2013 15:12

He probably does want to go theme parks, just with friends, not with you.

I have never taken mine to theme parks, Legoland or Disney...we don't really do holidays anymore. But mine don't sit in front of consoles or tv..they meet friends, play sport or do theatre.

livinginwonderland · 31/03/2013 15:17

the problem is, he would probably rather go with his mates or his girlfriend. no offence OP, but i don't know many 15 year old boys who would go to a theme park for the day with their mum. i think if a group of his mates were going, he'd be begging you to give him the money, but at at that age (for boys especially, i think), a day-trip out with mummy to the theme park seems a bit...sad.

simplesusan · 31/03/2013 15:20

Just a thought but if you did do Alton Towers, which my teenagers love, I am sure there is a travel lodge a few miles away. We drove past it on our way home. I think it was a Travel lodge if not it was Premier Inn. Could you book in there, much cheaper than The hotel at Alton Towers.

onefewernow · 31/03/2013 16:45

Probably a good call.

They do have family tone, don't they, but just when you don't plan it? Eg staying downstairs to watch a programme, a laugh over dinner, in the car, that sort of thing.

My older daughter - 25, nearly 26- went though a phase of wanting friends only, then wanting me to go everywhere with her ( especially shopping with a cheque book), then when she went to Uni she key coming home and missing us the first term or two.

After that we hardly saw her. Then when she stats a new job or has a problem or a boyfriend split I am desperately necessary. Right now she is happy and settled in a good job and with a partner who has been around a year, and we only speak weekly when I call her!

C'est la vie. When she has kids- if- I expect it will all change again.

onefewernow · 31/03/2013 16:46

Time not tone!

ImperialBlether · 31/03/2013 17:37

I feel for you, OP. It's really hard living with teens at times - you have to be there so that they don't have too much fun or burn the house down, but really all they want is either to be on their own or with their mates. It's particularly hard if they used to be really happy to spend time with you.

Having said that, I think I would try to get a day out with a friend. You'll feel much better for it.

A1980 · 31/03/2013 20:25

I agree Cuppatea when I was a child going out and being offered a trip to any of those places Would've been incredible day out for me. We could hardly afford anything.

Turning his nose up at a night in London a trip on the London eye and a theme park....!

It makes me laugh when my colleagues come back and say they struggle every year to find a holiday the kids enjoy and will usually hate it. I suggested they tell their kids they spent a lot of money on that holiday for them and they'll get nothing next year if they don't even try to like it...they said you can't do that...why not!

Surely its common decency to say thank you even if you hate it.

ImperialBlether · 01/04/2013 01:00

But, A1980, no 15 year old boy wants to go to a theme park with his mum. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with his mum or with him, it's just that when you're 15 you want to do that sort of thing, if at all, with your friends.

It's a really hard lesson when you're a single mum in particular to learn that your child would actually rather be with other people than with you. It's awful to learn, but the OP needs to face it. If she continued to push for that sort of trip together, the result would be that he'd move away from her (figuratively.)

I don't think it helps us thinking what life was like back in the day when we were lucky to have a holiday. We didn't have the distractions that they have now, so we were happier to leave the house. We also had a different relationship - more formal, I think - with our parents. Parents didn't believe in being your friend, so you didn't feel free to tell them you were bored with a holiday. I certainly spent holidays being bored, though, and so did my friends. We just didn't say anything to our parents about it.

AnyoneforTurps · 01/04/2013 03:01

If you asked him about the passes a year ago, I'm not surprised he has changed his mind. Not many teens could accurately predict what they want to do in 12 months; they change so quickly.

I was a very unrebellious teenager, but there is no way I'd have wanted to do these activities with my DM at 15 though that's partly because she's a PITA even now .

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