14 year old DS1 is a nightmare to buy for :(

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He used to be the easy one - Lego , lego and more lego and a pile of books, pair of Pjs a few sweets and job done :)

Birhday & christmas have become increasingly harder as the years go by and lego became less desirable.

DS2 (13) used to be the hard one and now he is easy peasy, he writes a list, wants the moon on a stick :o Basically I can tell him a budget and he lets me know his preferences.

DS1 - has no clue, he doesn't spend any of his money that he gets for birthday or christmas until there is a big thing he wants - there is nothing left that he wants. He has a decent phone, laptop, tv, xbox, ps3. There are no games he wants, he has a bike and two scooters. Has a nook, an ipod and DSi etc that he rarely touches, doesn't want an ipad, doesn't want a ps4, xbox1 or psvita.

He isn't into sport or fashion, loves the scouts and camping - he ended up with a lightweight 1 man tent and bits for his birthday, got his room done up and a double bed etc the year before and is still happy with it.

He loves to swim but pretty much has what he needs.

Experience days are out really as there are very few available within a reasonable distance that he would be interested in or is old enough for.

Books and pjs are still fine and I can usually find a few stocking fillers, but I am loath to just hand him cash as he will simply bank it and whilst that is an admirable quality, i'd like him to get some pleasure from a gift or from spending!

Anyone else in the same boat or have any inspirational ideas?

I have one too , 15 in December.

He likes cash. We give him a £50 note in a pretty wrapped box . He put it in his bank (or rather , I did) in April
Gift vouchers
Money from Grandparents.
He is a saver though

A gaming thing would be good - stuff like that is very rare up here though :(

We are coming to London for a few days in our October hols but guess we will have missed the one there too :(

70 I do think it's great that they like to save, but I like to see pleasure from gifts

I'd be perfectly happy to give DS2 cash because I know he would enjoy spending it.

I don't think having the cash in the bank makes DS1 happy particularly - he just puts it there out of habit.

Oh he gets much pleasure from his savings myother

He's like Gollum when he gets a statement My Precious

Details haven't been announced but next year's expo will be at NEC in Birmingham, as they are knocking down Earls court, may be an idea for next September. am pretty certain that there are other smaller shows in Manchester, will check with my husband later - he works for a games company, I have very little interest!

We are in Scotland dipsy there was something on in Dundee but we discovered it too late last year and this year the boys were away on a week long camp so we missed it again.

Any info on one of these events would be appreciated and we could save up and plan :)

DS2 wants to be a games designer......but although he is definitely bright enough he spends too long playing and not enough time coding - lazy beast! so by being a designer I think he means he wants a pet coder that he feeds his ideas to and they do all the actual work :o

How much is your budget?

well, I usually spend about £500 all in so maybe £300 - £350 for a main pressie.

just spoken to my husband, apparently very little worth while outside of London this year, he has said that Dundee is very well known for gaming and coding so may be worth looking to see if there are maybe any courses for non uni students available.

Great thank you for asking. :)

Yes, we've heard Dundee is good - it's not that local to us so would only be good for one off type things rather than a regular one hour type thing.

They have Coderdojo locally once a month and they do a few longer things in Glasgow.......unfortunately the things coming up have been arranged for days that schools are off in Glasgow but they aren't off where we are so they can't go which was pretty disappointing :(

What about a technical piece of kit for Scouting/camping/DofE? So a very good pair of hike boots, goretex waterproofs or sleeping bag
Or does he have a kilt? Scottish Scouts at international camps get lots of attention in a kilt!

Thanks mum yes he has pretty much all the gear as it has needed to be recently replaces as both boys growing like weeds - as he is almost 6 foot tall and a mens size Large he is now able to get OHs cast offs :) for a wee while anyway. and at an 11 just shoe size short of his dad too. I should add that my OH does a lot of hillwalking.

He was at Wings down south this Summer and yes, the boys did get a lot of attention in their kilts though sadly he was too shy to make the most of it :( He had a borrowed kilt for that. OH has a very nice kilt which we had made up and we have enough tartan left over to make another. OH feels his kilt is a tad too long so the thought is, that as the boys are expected to be taller than his 6'2", one can have his one (worn once) and we'll get another made up for the other. Decided now to wait until they reach adult height as it would be a waste otherwise I think.

I picked up 2nd hand decent rucksacs for wings as they needed bigger ones than the ones we had and they should be ideal for DofE. He has just got his 50 nights away badge at scouts so has had to have decent kit for a few years now.

He also has a good knife, head torch, lantern etc

He sounds very similar to my son who is 13 and also borderline Aspergers (I believe). Last year we bought him a gaming station desk for his room, a customised Xbox controller from Scuf eu.scufgaming.com/?redirect=GB and a new gaming headset (he likes the Tritton ones), some Xbox points, trainers, iTunes voucher and some books for his Kindle.

A friend bought her son a Raspberry Pi - apparently excellent for anyone who is interested in coding.

Hope you manage to find something he'd like

I read that Minecraft are releasing a coding add on for £30

I thought he'd be interested in raspberry Pi too, he had a go at it at Coderdojo but didn't seem keen when I suggested it to him at birthday time. Not sure why.

The minecraft thing might be a goer but I think he has done some modding (??) already - i'll look into that, thanks.

A customer controller might be good although he does have two already and I think he plays on the laptop more than the xbox - he does like things to match though so maybe get him one to match his bedroom :)

Camera? At that age they are often pleased to be given quite grown up things like bits of furniture or a designery lamp for their room. You could spend a fortune on a sporran.

Thanks. I think everyone now uses their phone for photos mainly - I thought he might want to get into using a proper camera with changeable lenses but he just shrugged.

He did like getting furniture when we did up his bedroom - I think he would like a nice chair but there isn't a lot of room left......he could probably do with a replacement chair for his desk though - he sits at it a lot when he is gaming. I wonder if you can get a decent office style gaming chair?

Yes you can. You could go skelly trying to choose. Binoculars. Fancy aluminium water bottles. Trying to remember the expensive bits of metalwork from the climbing shops that were not specifically for climbing. Traumatic amnesia.

The shrugging I do remember. I could never be sure whether it was a yes I would be vvvv happy if I got that or no I don't want that or needed to think about it and might like it.

Has he got a really good roll mat? I'm coveting a thermarest at the moment

he has one of the self inflating things but to be fair it was about £30 and I've seen some for about £100 - think I would baulk a bit at that.

I have seen this though:

www.countryandoutdoor.co.uk/index.php/biolite-camp-stove.html?fee=15&fep=132

just realised your post had a link :) thanks!

How about a guitar? With self teaching DVDs or token for lessons?

Thanks mama. He was desperate for a guitar when he was 5 or 6 - we got a very basic childs guitar and he messed about for a while. He showed interest again when he was about 10 and we bought a decent 3/4 guitar for him - and then he realised how much work it was to actually play and totally lost interest.

DH taught himself and is a fairly accomplished player but sadly neither boy is interested and I should actually sell the guitar as they are both adult sized now anyway so would play a full sized one if they ever decided to go for it again.

What about a game capture where he can record his game play and post on youtube or stream it live?

My son loves his.

Those Thermarests are meant to be amazing, they inflate quite thick and are supposed to be great for insulating/comfortable, but roll up to about the size of a tin of beans!

Not that I'm at all jealous, with my £5 Home Bargains jobby