It's that time again: half-term is upon us. Time for kids to visit each other's houses and for parents to think about what to do with them. My son is nearly 14 now, and I remember it used to be much easier to entertain him when he was younger as we could just suggest things and he would generally go along with them. Now that he turned into a grumpy teen, it's no longer so simple because I feel like he doesn't really want to do anything apart from being glued to his gaming console and phone.
Yesterday he was invited to his friend's house. They spent the entire day there playing their games and at the end of the day, the friend's mum took them out to the cinema. I suggested to my son that we should reciprocate, invite his friend back and organise something to do. My son doesn't seem to be that bothered about the whole reciprocation thing and seems happy to play with his friend online. I explained to him that it's not very nice to go to people's houses and not to invite them back. He said he will think about it but I am kind of certain that he won't because he said that sort of thing before and never did anything about it despite my repeated requests. I obviously cannot force his friends on him and don't really know what to do.
When he does have his friends around, he never wants to go anywhere and they just end up playing games all day. This makes me feel like a terrible mother whose son gets taken out to do things and who never organises anything when other people's children come around.
What do you do with teenage kids and how do you deal with friends' visits? Thanks for any ideas.