What does your 15yr old do?

[janx]

My ds won't join any clubs and has no interest in doing anything with friends at the weekend. He used to run but lost interest, he has very few friends and they play football which he dislikes. He's very into films and would happily spend all his life watching them. We used to try and get him out for a walk with the dog at the weekends but he doesn't want to do that now. He's bright but puts very little effort in at school.. Am I stressing over nothing?

I make my teens do at least two after school clubs a week - it stops too much gaming and improves their mood immeasurably.
my almost 15yo does, guitar, badminton, squash and sometimes goes climbing at the weekends.
almost 17yo plays badminton, does explorer scouts, fencing, sails in the summer and plays piano and golf.
they both also love gaming.

Doing DoE was great for my 15 yo who really didn’t want to do much and was quite anti-social. He is still volunteering at the placement he got for this. He found he enjoyed climbing. Generally has met more people and seems happier.

Ds 15 does not do loads with friends but seems quite happy with that. He attends 2 different sports clubs and also takes himself to the gym after school. He also has a job which he enjoys. He has quite good social skills now. His sports and job means he socialises with people of different ages. He does family stuff, today we are going our for lunch but definitely spends a lit of time in his room!

Mine plays out all summer, there’s a bunch of lovely girls in the streets surrounding us and we don’t see her for dust when the weathers nice. In the winter she gets a bit stuck. She won’t do any clubs but loves family activities. So on the days I’m not working we’ll go bowling or to the cinema or something. She loves a game/card night, or a family movie or baking with me. When she has no one to do anything with though, she does tend to hibernate in her room, she does have a couple friends she’ll game online with occasionally. She would be out all the time with her school friends (none local but she catches buses), but they’ve got a really annoying dynamic where they can’t just invite one or two other friends to do something. There’s 12 of them so it’s almost impossible to arrange a convenient day out for all of them, and some people in the group get offended if anyone else does something without them 🙄

DS15 plays cricket in the summer (Sat & Sun plus 4 x training sessions) and football in the winter (2 x games on weekend plus 3-4 trainings). His social life also revolves around sport, he goes to the park or cricket nets with friends in the holidays and they go to watch professional matches in several different sports. In his free time he games. He’s very bright, doesn’t put a huge amount of effort in yet. Doesn’t know what he wants to do in the future but there’s plenty of time (we are not in UK so our uni entrance process is different).