Yesterday DS1 (age 12) tearfully begged me to have a conversation with him. To cut a long story short, it turns out that he's been feeling lonely and starved of conversation for a while.
I am a SAHM mum but I've been busy these last few months, so when he's at home, I've been leaving him to amuse himself. He talks to boys at school but only a couple of words here and there, in between lessons.
What is exhausting me is what he wants to talk about: anything as long as its grown up. So, yesterday, I spent an hour whilst I was making dinner describing the events and implications of the Arab spring, with reference to the Tunis museum attacks last week.
Then we watched the documentary 5 broken cameras on netflix together.
Today, he has asked me to explain bond pricing to him.
I know this sounds like a first world problem, but he was really upset because he's so bored. Whenever we go out somewhere as a family, he wants to be doing something, like bowling or visiting a museum (which DS2 hates).
I don't think i can keep up even though Dh has said he'll help. I just don't have enough general knowledge. We know these are not normal 12 year old interests, so the chances of finding a friend his own age to engage with like this are not very high.