Only child and what to do half term

[Tenalady]

DS12 was at boarding school some distance from home. Now home and of course school friends are all over the Country so we have the issue of no friends locally and being an only child.

I say problem because most activities, karting, paintballing, laserquesting etc etc seems to be a group thing or am I mistaken?

surely if he has been at boarding school, he will appreciate some time spent with you?

can't the two of you do some nice things together?

well that is just it Gym, what can we do together, I think most of the activities are set up for groups or at least two, or am I mistaken. I cant kart cos of back issues, what do I do stand ring side and watch him go round on his own? Happy to do most things but I think even laser quest wouldn't be very satisfying with just the two of us. Those lucky to have 2 or more children may not have the same problem, so any suggestions warmly welcomed. Swimming and bowling he doesn't like. He is more the adventurous type.

I really start to see why most parents just give up and leave them on their computers at this age, what else is there, cos I cant find it.

Cinema trip, cooking together, redesigning his bedroom, getting you to learn how to play his Xbox, go to a museum, take a walk or cycle together, do a treasure hunt, take a trip to the seaside, go to the nearest station and jump on the first train adventure, ......
This is a chance for you to spend one to one time together- what does HE want to do?

*Zip-lining
*Gentle hiking with gorgeous picnic lunch, and thermos of hot chocolate
Museum exhibition / cinema with lunch out before or after
*do you play tennis? Golf?

• go for a bike ride together (pack a lunch in a rucksack, or cycle to a specific pub/restaurant for lunch and back again) *Get a hand-held GPS and do some geocaching together - lots of fun, and lots of families do it together. Do some googling to find caches located near you. *Take him to an indoor rock climbing place. You can watch, or he may be able to find some lads there to climb with.

Does he have any pre-boarding school pals in the area he could reconnect with? What about children of your friends?

Mine go to their local schools, but it's very rare to meet with friends in the holidays, tbh. They just like the "doing nothing" that comes with being on holiday. Don't be fooled into thinking siblings 'hang out' with one another in their secondary school years
I let them sleep, get them to do some jobs, there's usually the boring stuff like dentist / haircut /optician / getting new school shoes stuff to be done. Time soon goes, but they don't need to be 'enterained' the whole time.

I sympathise - I have an only child and it is hard to encourage them to do anything except the computer stuff .

I've suggested all the usual - bike ride/hike/cinema/trip to city/seaside/whatever. I think Back has the right idea, let them do nothing, clean their room, a bit of boring stuff and visiting grandparents .

I imagine that the luxury of being allowed to sleep in until mid morning and eat a fruit bowl sized bowl of cornflakes in front of the TV, will take care of a good part of the day :)
Whereabouts do you live?

hadn't heard of this geocaching thingy, must look that up. Like the idea of the jump on a train adventure, we are going to do the cinema and going to try Go Ape.

We have already done most of the museums in the country during his lifetime so he isn't too keen on that one, just done the bedroom redesign.

He wants karting and air rifle shooting, costly!!

As a double whammy we moved homes last year, so no old pals locally either.

Got a few to look into - thank you xxx

Check out your mumsnet local for what's on over half term. They may have uncovered things you don't know about.

I used to board and found the school holidays bit lonely at times - but also lovely to just watch tele because we weren't allowed to at school.

Ha ha Ragwort, the threat of the grandparent visit always involves me having to lock the car doors once he is in and drive there very quickly.

Oscar, we are now West Suffolk on the Cambs/Suffolk border nearest towns Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket,.

Imperial War Museum in Duxford?
Cheap last minute day return or overnight tickets from Stansted
www.norfolksnowsports.com/ bit of a distance perhaps

Invite friends from school to stay for a few days?

Tenalady - my DS actually likes visiting grandparents as my mother (over 80) has an ipad so that's a great attraction. .

Shame we have moved as we used to live quite near you and with boys the same age we could have met up . Other side of the country now.

Thanks everyone, spent most of yesterday fumbling with technology with the geocaching in mind, a miracle but I managed it. DS grumbling in tow, I dragged him out to find our first cache. He sat in the car whilst I tried it out and failed miserably, no more than 20 yards and I retreated to the car. BINGO, he took my I phone and said oh for goodness sake let me give it a go, didn't see him for half an hour, he found the cache and everything, so a success. However, got to build up to the next one, seems I have to involve a little bit of trickery to get the motivation going. Still, we got out of the house and off that bally PC. Mystery train trip tomorrow, still a mystery to me at the moment but here goes. . . .

Opps! Sorry.