Do you let your teens shut themselves away in their rooms?

[reddaisy]

My DSD is 14 and she is with us every other weekend and one night during the week.

She was with us last night and we had tea as a family, she went to her drama class and then she went up to her room to watch The Apprentice even though we were watching it downstairs.

As we don't see her that much, I thought she would want to watch it with us. DP doesn't seem to mind and I was always in my room by myself when I was her age.

Do your teens spend a lot of time in their rooms by themselves? She has just got a new boyfriend so I think she is quite happy to be daydreaming about him rather than spending time with us!

A lot of ds friends do this - even taking their evening meal upstairs to eat ..... we dont really do this ds1 is upstairs a lot studying ds2 is up there resting or on the gamestation but we often watch tv together or play on the console downstairs.

ds is 18 and rarely seen, but he does come down to watch things like spooks with us

The short answer is yes [smile}. Good for you at least having meals as a family - try to keep that going as long as possible. We don't and I feel bad about that . I've found that if you push them to spend time with you they resent it and get stroppy, but will come and spend time with you when they want something/are bored/feel like some company and that's when you have to make time for them whatever you're doing. I remember being exactly the same!
I watch Vampire Diaries, Next Top Model, Ugly Betty with DD2 (13) and Desperate Housewives, Private Practice and the only way is Essex with DD1 (16). Then we watch romcoms together at the w/e - all v TV orientated!!!

Thanks for the replies, I don't want to force her to spend time with us and TBH it is nice watching television without a mobile phone going off constantly but I also want her to come down when she feels like it.

Mine spends a long time in her room. Doing what I don't know. I don't let her have a computer or a TV anymore cos when she had them, I never saw her other than for mealtimes.

So now surfing & TV must be done downstairs. That said, she prob. uses her iPhone to surf and listen to music. Oh well at least its not really loud.

I'm told that they do eventually return to the same planet as the rest of us one day.

I think it is ok ifthey trot off to their rooms. I remember I did that a fair bit too

I just let ds get on with it.He is 16/17 now and is gradually venturing out and gasp interacting with us again!