10-year-old refusing to go out & do things - any ideas?

[ILiketoMarmiteMarmite]

My 10 yo ds who's a lovely lovely boy just hates doing things, including going to footaball, going to the library, going for walks with the dog. Except when he's actually DOING the things he loves them. It's the getting ready & leaving the house that he can't bear. Leaving the house seems to be the main thing. He just wants to stay in and read comics with the dog or play his DS. He never used to be so indoorsy.

Oh a bit confused, perhaps not explained well. Any ideas or anyone have a similar thing?

Oh in that case I'll have a virtual vodka too! Mine have got Aikido after school so atleast I know they'll be getting some sport done.

My DS1 (7.6yrs) is an indoorsy type too. He likes being out when he is out but he also is usually the first to want to come home again. Sometimes it helps to set a timetable for him. If we go out somewhere and say that (at weekends) he can play on the computer or whatever at a certain time, he accepts it better if we say it isn't time to go home yet. He is more likely to accept what he is doing. Of course if it gets close to the time he was promised and he isn't at home then it gets a bit fraught be usually we allow ourselves some margin for delays so this doesn't happen too often.

I would love an outdoorsy type boy though - kick them outdoors and let them play! DS2 is more like that but of course he doesn't want to be outside on his own and he is only 4 so there are limits on how long he should be left to it.

I am glad that we are not alone though. I thought I had the only DS in the world who didn't like being out on his bike, climbing trees and generally running around (although not all at the same time obviously)

My 10 year old was like this last year and I could have posted something similar to op.
Since starting secondary, in Sep it continued but her independence has grown since then.
In the last few weeks, and now 11 years my dd, pops out and goes around to see her friends and is far more willing to make her own plans.

I wonder if I should be more accepting and not hoofing DS out the door to hockey etc but just focusing instead on him probably ending up madly interesting writer or research scientist.

School routine is such a tough one, early rising (6.45) and a long journey every day. Sometimes I do want to let him have pyjama days at the weekend, but I do love walking and he loves it too - like most of your dc's it seems - once he gets going. I find a good way of encouraging him for long walks is to arm him with map and compass and put him in charge.

Just had a thought to encourage those couch potatoes outside. Geocaching. It is a bit nerdy but my two love it. You register with the website here then you can look up details of caches in you area. They are usually hidden boxes of small items which you swap with one of your own. Some are trackable. You do need a sat nav or gps really but the children love the hunt. Afterwards you log your find on the website.

I had a look at your geocaching site redwino, at first it seemed horribly complicated but I can see the fun in it. I think it might be something my DS would like, I'll tell him about it after school today. He does love the map and compass thing (he would LOVE a GPS device) and the idea of exploring.

I think what's wrong for my guy is that during term time he has something every day that he has to do - even weekend days - and it's too much. The problem is they don't have much proper sport at school so I'm trying to get it for him outside school.

What do you put in the cache boxes rw and how on earth do you know what GPS to get? They are flippin expensive too.

Well the sort of things you put in are just small toys, pencils etc. Also some people put in 'geocoins' which have a tracking number on them and you have to put them back in another cache. You can also get other objects to track which have a tag on them. We recently picked up a mini boomerang which the originator wants returned to Holland eventually. It will get moved from cache to cache until it gets 'home'.
We use my DH's TomTom SatNav to find the caches but you can get a handheld GPS , the sort used by walkers, for around £60 I think. Still quite pricey unless you use it lots. You can do this with a compass and good OS map I should think and it might even be more fun that way.