how do you stop them becoming one of the teens who hang around town centres looking bored and a bit menacing

[Notmyidea]

Older dd seems drawn to this form of spending her time this half term:(

I get I'm putting her off being at home, it's where she gets nagged about homework told she needs to turn the telly off. (I've provided activities and had her friends over, too.)
Any ideas?

Forgot to mention explorers (Scouts).

I like it when my 14yo son goes into down to hang around with his pals. Its normal healthy teenstuff isn't it? And "looking slightly menacing" is in the eye of the beholder. It annoys me that perfectly good-natured teens get demonised in this way.

down town

It annoys me that perfectly good-natured teens get demonised in this way.

and me dd1 once heard as she was standing at the bus stop , look at her with her hood up she is one of those goths and the women stepped away from her, poor kid was quite upset about it and said to me I AM EMO GOTH

Not a parent of a teen (or at all yet) so no useful input on that front but when I was a teen myself, my friend's parents let us convert her garden shed into a space we could hang out in and my younger sister had a friend whose grandparents lived nearby and let their grandson and all their friends hang out in the garage. They cleared it out, put an old sofa in there and the grandson moved his TV and games console in.

Neither my sister nor I bothered hanging out on street corners as we had somewhere slightly warmer to go (although she got a better deal with the garage than I did with the shed!).

If you have any kind of space like that which you can let your DD use, it might help.

I hate threads like this. What's wrong with meeting your mates in a public place?
Is this only something teenagers shouldn't be doing?

Mine have all had activites (football or drama club) on a Saturday. But they have certainly done a bit of hanging out as well; mainly in the park on a sunny afternoon, or in the mall coffee shop on a rainy one. They have managed not to turn into delinquents yet.

I think unsupervised social interaction is vital to developing kids' self confidence and general self reliance. It's really not good for them to have their Mum's breathing down their neck's all the time.
We have a massive, multi million pound youth club just opened in our town. There are dozens of interesting activities kids can do there. But there is also lots of space set aside for kids to just hang out and chill.

Isn't this the flipside of all that nostalgic crap about playing out all day as a child and making our own entertainment and how the current generation of children are obese, suffering from rickets and scurvy and will be kidults until they are in their thirties?
Because they don't hang around outside the home with friends? Develop initiative and social interactions with the general public? Learn what is acceptable and what not from people other than mum and dad?

If all they wanted to do was innocently chat to their friends they would do it in someone's house, in relative comfort, rather than in a windswept park or rainy town centre.

I work in a secondary school and some of the things that happen when parents think that their DC are 'out with friends' shocks even me.

If all they wanted to do was innocently chat to their friends they would do it in someone's house, in relative comfort, rather than in a windswept park or rainy town centre.

Way to generalise teenagers. Not everyone can hang around at someone's house, and maybe 14/15 year olds don't want to be hanging around with younger siblings/parents all the time. That independence is all about growing up and learning how to entertain yourself on your own terms.

Another one that says what on earth is wrong with hanging around with your mates.
As for looking menacing, I don't find them menacing at all, the majority of teens are lovely, ds and his mates included.
He's 18 now and away, and we live in a small village but they would sometimes get together in town as a group, utterly harmless.

Don't know where you live, adeucalione, but we are in the balmy and delightful SE. Lots of places to sit and chat, or stroll around in the sunshine, the weather is usually pretty good.
Then there's all the undercover shopping bits too, with seats.

Surely one of the whole joys of being a teenager is Hanging Around Pointlessly, along with Feeling Misunderstood?

Surely all Mumsnet teenagers are at home practising the viola ("sooo much better for getting into a string ensemble- everyone plays the fiddle"), reading the classics or playing niche sports like real tennis and fives?

It depends what they are doing when they are 'hanging out'. Is she part of the lairy group that seem to be at every shopping centre, or is she quietly walking about with a small group of friends trying on clothes and testing make up? If the former, then I would put my foot down and put other things in place - if the latter, then I really wouldn't worry too much. So long as the homework, revision and chores are done then I would be happy for her to be hanging out with a group of naice friends.

And they can't help looking menacing. They lurch, teenagers, IME. Like zombies. It's not deliberate.

motherinferor.
They do don't they, especially the boys. They get very cumbersome.

How old is she OP? My eldest 13 likes top model books you can get them from TRU, she likes fashion designing anyway so these books are ideal. Where they can do their own designs, you can also get interior design books too. Mine likes sequin art, also likes the SIMS game. Also likes watching films, She sees her friends from time to time too to meet up the shops we go out as a family too, and me and her do sewing together. Does your dd like baking, or doing things creative?

I understand not all teens are just hanging out I do have teens and I am not blinded I know perfectly well what SOME teenagers not all are getting up too .I can honestly say i know what mine were and are up to most of the time ,

Surely one of the whole joys of being a teenager is Hanging Around Pointlessly, along with Feeling Misunderstood?

and sighing so much sighing

And stomping upstairs

we live in a flat so she just stomps up and down the hall

I don't think the boys can help the lurching. They turn overnight from sweet compact little things to huge bumfluffed pustulent creatures. Their hands and feet sort of hang off. They look elongated.

I was living back in India during the year when we all turned 14 and came back to find the boys all transformed. Quite thrillingly, I have to say, at the time.

There is a frisson of anticipation when you are out that you can't get from being in with your mates. There is always the possibility that something unexpected might happen - it is a triumph of hope over experience (like much of teenagerhood).