What do your teen boys do at home that doesnt involve a screen?

[ThumbTowers]

I have two young teen sons (14,12). All they seem to want to do at home is gaming or messing about on their phones. I'd really like them to be doing something else, but once the screens are off they are lost, bored, argue with each other etc. What do your teens do to occupy their time at home?

Both belong to a number of sport/hobby clubs that they attend outside of school, so they are active and have variety. But it's the hours spent actually in the house that I am concerned by here. I know they could be reading, painting etc but, in reality, what is it that your teens spend their time at home doing?

Well they spend most of their time at school and sport / hobbies etc so screen time isn’t such a big deal.

I wouldn’t worry too much about it tbh.

they’ll have GCSEs to worry about soon so they’ll be doing loads of revising for that then again for their A levels.

At 14 though mine were often hanging out at friends houses which was more of an issue re coming home late etc
I’d have preferred them safely at home on their screens tbh

Thanks. The younger one sees quite a few friends. They will sometimes spend time in the park, but a lot if it involves gaming at one another's houses! The older one has a smaller social circle who seem less interested in meeting up outside of school.

Mine are older teens but …

• chores, particularly the ones that need some muscle (heavy gardening, building the shed, clearing out the garage). They quite like an outdoor project that has a goal, to give them a sense of achievement
• cooking
• baking
• painting Warhammer models
• sitting together with a cup of tea arguing about various hypothetical scenarios
• using the exercise equipment in the garage
• reading
• going for walks (I realise this isn’t “in the house”, but if we have a day where they are not technically going somewhere they will still usually go for a walk from the house)

Play football in the park down our rd
play guitar
read
cook
hang out with mates
listen to music
they do love a screen though!

Oh the gym too. Obsessed!

Reading or cricket on the VR Headset. It's a type of screen, I realise, but exercise too.

Football. Gardening. Playing in the park. Hanging out with friends. More football. A bit more football. Youth club.

Music

Sorry - realised I totally missed the at home part.

Although our front door literally opens onto the park so to us that's been at home

Football in back yard, gardening, discussing football. Oldest likes to decorate and fix things

Cooking, piano, painting Warhammer, playing tabletop games (DnD etc), playing with pets, chatting (does it count as a screen when using it to chat with a group of friends?), housework, homework, sleeping!

But mostly screens.

Biking around and playing football in the garden mostly. Ds1 set up a car washing and gardening thing over easter with his mate. They got quite a lot of business considering we live in a small rural village. Made a bit of money.

We got a pool table so DS spends a bit too much time on it

Exercising, running and weights.
Playing with dogs/walking dogs/feeding and cleaning out our animals
Have friends around to play pool, listen to music. Often involves gaming though!
Reading.
Playing guitar and keyboard.
Chatting with us and siblings.

But also lots of gaming whilst chatting online to friends.

To be honest, not much! DS 12 is obsessed with gaming but we don't really limit it. He suffers social anxiety and used to have selective mutism so it's quite nice to hear him chatting away to his friends whilst they all play Roblox (in their respective homes)
He doesn't do any hobbies and only occasionally sees friends outside school. I give him a couple of chores to do in the house and we play family board games. We do try to get him out for a walk maybe once a week. It's a huge battle but he enjoys it once he's out.

Eating is my 15yo's favourite hobby, closely followed by asking what else there is to eat. Can also be found playing guitar, reading, listening to music or practicing his golf swing.

Eat and sleep, and occasionally shower.

Edited to say just joking.

Football, football, football....Steve's Lava Chicken, Football......dropping clothes off to laundry, flooding the bathroom after a shower so he recovers by playing football.

Edited to say this is not a joke.

• Reading
• Exercising (push-ups, plank, pull-up bar)
• Practicing keep ups in the front garden
• Occasionally drawing
• Lego
• Musical instrument practice
• Bouncing balls around in the hallway
• And his absolute fav, moping about complaining to me about being bored and why won't anyone come outside and play football with him.

Mine (13, y8) is usually on a screen, with friends, or helping DH build stuff in the garden. He’s been building an outside sauna with DH all this weekend, DH gives him £25 a day for helping.

His current computer game is a long term project building a massive theme park, he thinks it will take him 3 months to build all the rides etc. It’s quite creative. He also plays online shooting games with friends.

When he goes out with friends it’s to ride his mtb at a pump track or local town for cinema and McDs.

He also spends time at home with his sister (15) they look at videos and gossip about school together. Occasionally they go for walk together to local caravan park (we live rurally) and buy an icecream.

Eating and sleeping basically.
They do go out with friends and both play a sport, so go training and play matches too, but they are generally on their phones, laptops (if they're doing homework), games consoles or watching TV at home.
Oh, the 16 year old also spends a lot of time stuck to his girlfriend's face. I would love them to do something creative like making, baking or fixing stuff but there has never been a flicker of interest in those activities!

Oh and the eating!

I mean there is boredom, moping and so on too .. but

Practice instrument and painting take up a fair bit of time.

Mine is 13 and is a sloth. He plays a sport twice a week and will walk the dog if I nag him enough. He occasionally goes out with friends but he prefers (if he had his way) being at home gaming tbh.

I'm exhausted with dragging him off screens...

When they’re in the house, very little other than screens. Bit of music practice for half an hour.

They do stuff outside of the house but with the best will in the world, there’s still a lot of hours in the day to fill. And when they’re home, it’s screens.