What do your year 7's do at the weekends?

[Remmy123]

My 12 son usually plays football but season has finished.

Weekends he sits on his PC, plays in the garden with his brothers, sits on phone.. hangs around but doesn't go out with his friends?

I suggest a friend to come over or suggest he goes out but he never does? Is it normal for year 7 boy to want to stay at home?

Summer holidays it's going to be the same.. I'll arrange a day to Thorpe park with his friends and maybe a day shopping in town with a friend but apart from that he will be at home evey day on screens!!! I don't want to keep nagging him to go out!

Thanks

I used to let my DS play on it as much as he wanted at the beginning of the school holidays.

After about 3 days he's stagger towards us bleary eyed asking what we'd got planned and when were we going out?

Seemed to work for us

Ds never arranged to go out at all at that age. He was always quite happy to just stay at home, or come out with us as a family when we organised something. Now at the end of y12 he’s got his act together and is busy planning.

Dd is really sociable but also just likes chilling at home in the summer and hardly every arranges anything.

I think it is a normal phase to go through, from when they go to secondary until they are 15 or 16.

They are too old for parents to arrange "play dates" but haven't yet developed the skills to sort things out for themselves.

I was glad my dd's football team used to meet for training throughout the Summer, and that my all dc went to Scouts which, as well as the weekly meetings in term time, also had camps and events happening throughout the year, which took up many other Saturdays and Sundays.

Ds would be out meeting up with school friends, either with the boys to play football at any local astro that was open or in the playing fields. If they weren't doing that they would be meeting up with boys and girls and messing around in the local country park, in and out of the shallow river, going to each others houses or mcds for dinner, going for bike rides all over town to meet up with different people, cinema, swimming etc. We kept in touch by phone but wouldn't see him much from lunchtime through to nighttime unless it was our turn to feed the masses .

They would also have sleepovers at one of the groups houses most weekends through summer. We could fit 9-10 in our living room at a squeeze, but every parent took their turn so thankfully wasn't often!

All arranged by them (usually badly with little notice) through group chats on social media and they would walk to where they needed to be, with various meeting points along the way and would cover quiet a few miles every day.

Probably the advantage of everyone going to local catchment schools (Scotland), so friends all fairly local in same town.

DD does nothing.
Her older brother in year 9 is out with mates on his bike and at the skate ramp most weekends. It's only this year he's really got into it.

We have this with ds12 too - he went through a phase when he first started y7 of going out a lot but that's died off. We do limit PS4 and phone time to force him to do something else instead and to be fair he will - he does a lot of cooking and had graffiti spray paint for his birthday so he'll do that in the garden. He even gets the Lego out still. He will go on a bike ride or a walk now and then with us.
Ds1 is 15 and is out every minute he can be but he's always been more sociable - ds2 almost thinks he should be more like his brother, and does miss having him around a bit, but is naturally quieter and enjoys his own company. I'm in no hurry to change that.

12 is still quite young really, they’re kind of stuck in the funny stage between being a little kid and a more independent teen. They don’t want to go everywhere with you anymore, but can find it hard to make their own plans.

Dd1 was like this at that age. Tbh she was about 15 before she felt confident to make plans, but would always go if someone else made plans and invited her.

Dd2 on the other hand is a social butterfly and has been confidently making plans to regularly go out and about independently with friends since she was about 10. But I know many kids are not like this at that age.

I’d just let him be for now. Im sure in a few years you’ll hardly see him and miss the times when he was home more.

So reassuring to read this. Dd is on a screen all the time and it seems such a waste. He won’t call his mates tho they talk when they play computers online so that’s something. He jus doesn’t want to do anything and grudgingly said he’d do an activity but would like to do it with his mates, but trying to get their mums to coordinate anything seems impossible. They all seem to have grandparents and cousins to go to. I feel like Billy no mates suggesting stuff they could do, to the mums, but somehow it doesn’t happen. Or I don’t try hard enough or something. I used to have a lot more energy for taking him and sis ( 16) out, but of course they are not so keen now, and I’m so tired of trying to encourage them in the face of unenthusiasm. Should I insist we go out?for a day trip to the town or something? I wonder if I’m bored too? Everything just seems such an effort.

Very reassuring to read these replies. My 12yr old DS is very similar. He's very happy pottering about the house doing his own thing or still likes going out with me on day trips occasionally. Not particularly interested in connecting up with friends. I'm reassured also by the fact that my now 17 yr old was very similar at that age and now has a large group of friends he socialises with.
Also they had such a strange Yr 7 with home learning, class bubbles etc they've not had as much chance to mix and make firm friendships. I think/hope it will happen in its own good time.

DD (12.5) plays out with friends, bikes, scooter, kick around a ball etc. She likes to go out for lunch, cinema, swimming, treetop trek etc she likes to play board games with me, watch Netflix, baking.

PlayStation
Archery club if I can get him there
Plays his guitar a bit
Is just beginning to meet up with his best friend out of school (but at each other’s houses, not “out”)

Thanks for all of your helpful replies!!

He went to the main town shopping with mates over the wwwkend and I was delighted he was out with his mates!!

This week we have no plans but he is happy with that it's me that isn't!!

It is a funny age 😬