What do your 16 & 17 years olds do when they are home?

[cardy1969]

I'm finding it increasingly frustrating that whenever my dds (14 & 16) are home they just spend their time lying on their beds looking at their phone. How do your teens spend their free time?

To be fair to them they get on with homework when they need to and work hard but at other times they don't seem to actually do anything. I'm not sure what I want them to do, perhaps cook or bake, read or make something, even watch the news or read a newspaper. I understand that they need down time as they both work hard at school and dd1 has a Saturday job but I just want them to do something.

I try to encourage them to watch something on TV with us when we are all home, which is nice and we try to all eat together and chat over dinner. Should I just let them them while away their free time however they wish (on social media or what YouTube videos)?

They both do a couple of after school/colleges activities too. Am I expecting too much?

Snapchat their friends while listening to music with headphones on.

my son give up all hobbies (swimming, judo, guitar) to play on Xbox. Hardly goes out as all his friends on line. Plays daily, except in exam time, for the first time ever he went for a few day without touching xbox. He wont even go out for clothes shopping or anything.

Wont help in house even when offered pocket money, and hardly talks to me.

typical weekend for my son.
wake up about 9-10am breakfast
play xbox till midnight with breaks for lunch and tea. sometimes he will switch off to spend time on his phone. He can this routine almost nonstop in school holidays.
I find it very sad. Okay some gaming is good but he wont interact with anyone, and family meals are occasional.
he has no interest in anything else even when we had a close family funeral a few months ago he made many excuses to not attend the events (basically to game at home) - i was angry - but not much i can do.

My ds is 16, he will sit and talk to us at dinner, come to the gym with us and watch tv/ films with us. Other than that he watches Netflix, goes on YouTube, Snapchat etc. At the minute he is revising lots for mocks and I help him with that. He does spend a lot of time on screens but will also help out with chores or cooking when asked.

Aducknotallama - you are lucky. I even offered to pay for gym membership for my teen - nope not interested! Offers to the cinema or home movie nights are declined too. He just like to sit alone and game, even if i enter the room for something else, he gets frustrated. Even to call out for dinner, can get shouted being accused at disturbing him in the middle of a game. (DS even had help from CAMS over his gaming and behavior - overall not much gained from that).

I realise I am lucky, a couple of years ago he was addicted to gaming and I thought he would never be interested in anything else, luckily he became involved in sport and it changed his outlook.

My two boys (17 and 19) hardly ever sit in the living room with us. When at home they watch telly, play XBox, mess about with phones/laptops/other gadgets, sleep or sometimes just lie on their beds contemplating life. Occasionally one of them will stick their head around the living room door and say they are putting the kettle on or I will hear them rummaging for food (usually mooching around wearing nothing but their boxers). This seems to be perfectly normal behaviour.

Both are happy, play sports, have friends and girlfriends. They have been very involved with visiting relatives over Christmas and played board games and chatted with grandparents on Christmas Day.

We do insist on mealtimes together but thats it - and we are increasingly finding that they are not always at home at mealtimes anyway!