Ideas for occupying teenagers needed!

Simile

I urgently need help finding something to occupy my 15 year old non-sporty daughter for the holidays. She is a lovely girl but is getting into mischief as she has nothing to occupy her time other than hanging out with friends. Any suggestions welcome!!

Greystoner

Oooh, tricky age and long summer ahead!

Is she into things like 'Glee'? There are workshops all over the Greystones area for the summer for things like that. Could do it with a friend too.

'Sleepover' party with some friends; facepacks, snacks and DVD etc, could take a little while to organise and be a 'project'. Also, you know where they are without making an issue about it and it will get the 'hanging out' with friends a bit less boring. They can stay up late chatting about 'the boys' etc.

Cinema? Short trip over to UK to somewhere like Alton Towers (theme park) etc?

Everything seems to come at a cost at the moment!!!

I am trying to think back to when I was 15(thinking very far back!!) and it's kind of tough because you want to be grown up, but still not quite there, bit of an in-betweeny age. The company kept can be key. It can be handy to know the other parents so you can all keep things in check discreetly without the girls thinking they are being nagged at.

Good luck! (I think I will be leaving home when mine are teenagers, if they are anything like I was...)

Desire.

I'm sorry to say, but I don't think finding something to keep your daughter occupied will keep her out of "mischief". I mean, she will still be hanging out with her friends a lot like.

Greystoner

Greystoner wrote: »

Oooh, tricky age and long summer ahead!

Is she into things like 'Glee'? There are workshops all over the Greystones area for the summer for things like that. Could do it with a friend too.

'Sleepover' party with some friends; facepacks, snacks and DVD etc, could take a little while to organise and be a 'project'. Also, you know where they are without making an issue about it and it will get the 'hanging out' with friends a bit less boring. They can stay up late chatting about 'the boys' etc.

Cinema? Short trip over to UK to somewhere like Alton Towers (theme park) etc?

Everything seems to come at a cost at the moment!!!

I am trying to think back to when I was 15(thinking very far back!!) and it's kind of tough because you want to be grown up, but still not quite there, bit of an in-betweeny age. The company kept can be key. It can be handy to know the other parents so you can all keep things in check discreetly without the girls thinking they are being nagged at.

Good luck! (I think I will be leaving home when mine are teenagers, if they are anything like I was...)

Sorry, scrap the 'Glee' thing. I just looked it up and there are loads of camps, but only up to age 14, argh!!!

The only other thing I could say is think back to what you got up to as a teenager and was it really that bad?Even good kids can get up to no good when bored, they just need guidelines about being sensible. eg; if they are going to drink and smoke to know their limits and the law. Have a curfew, but don't be too naggy about it as this can force them to rebel.If they are going to drink, the ID laws make it tougher to get hold of alcohol (unless they want to rob the parents cherry brandy/Baileys etc).

Where are they in the evenings?Always ask where they are going, even if it's somewhere like 'the park' to just chat to friends etc.

If your daughter is sensible in essence, she should be able to say no to anything too bad. If it is a group, there is always going to be a 'naughty' one, but chances are there will be a few not wanting to go too way off the line.

We were all teenagers once. I am sure she will be fine. Keep the communication open, but never let her feel she is being nagged, and you should be able to relax.

who the fug

Part time job.

Simile

Thanks for the ideas. I'm panicking a bit less now.
She is in essence pretty sensible and I've always encouraged open communication - sometimes i get more than I bargained for but hey, at least she's telling me some stuff.
Part of my worry is that I don't know the group she is hanging around with at the moment and none of them are school friends and a lot of them are older. That said I am being introduced gradually...
WTF - I have a part time job lined up for her for a few weeks and we'll be away for another week.
Desire - I don't want her not to see her friends at all, just not all day every day.

Thanks again and any further input still welcome!

slowburner

Simile wrote: »

WTF -

AirsoftAndy

She should think about maybe playing games when she is bored like on Ps3 Wii Xbox or even on ur pc. alot of girls play games like Sims and RPG(role playing games) and some even play first person shooters like the COD(call of duty series) and bfbc2 . people use these games to communicate and socialise with friends at night time and even when say its raining or friends are sick it keeps you really busy and u wont be bored when the terrible weather comes during the winter. but its understandable if she's not into it at first but some times it takes playing with friends to really get into playing games just say get her a xbox (preowned at gamestop) and get her a couple of games like GTA IV (altought it has guns and stuff its a 18's games but everyone plays it) and sims 3 and get her to invite a couple of frinds over and play it to keep her occupied and when her friends arnt there she can play online through broadband connection and talk to her friends for free throught the mic ( saves alot of money on phonecalls) But i suppose everyone isnt into gaming but i suggest borrowing a games onsole and renting a game to see if she likes it or if u have a son he might have on too .
hope this helps

PseudoFamous

AirsoftAndy wrote: »

She should think about maybe playing games when she is bored like on Ps3 Wii Xbox or even on ur pc. alot of girls play games like Sims and RPG(role playing games) and some even play first person shooters like the COD(call of duty series) and bfbc2 . people use these games to communicate and socialise with friends at night time and even when say its raining or friends are sick it keeps you really busy and u wont be bored when the terrible weather comes during the winter. but its understandable if she's not into it at first but some times it takes playing with friends to really get into playing games just say get her a xbox (preowned at gamestop) and get her a couple of games like GTA IV (altought it has guns and stuff its a 18's games but everyone plays it) and sims 3 and get her to invite a couple of frinds over and play it to keep her occupied and when her friends arnt there she can play online through broadband connection and talk to her friends for free throught the mic ( saves alot of money on phonecalls) But i suppose everyone isnt into gaming but i suggest borrowing a games onsole and renting a game to see if she likes it or if u have a son he might have on too .
hope this helps

Mother of God. That was tricky to decode. It was also terrible advice. If someone wants to play vidja games, great, let them, but you probably shouldn't encourage it.

Also, I particularly liked this bit:

and get her a couple of games like GTA IV (altought it has guns and stuff its a 18's games but everyone plays it)

AirsoftAndy

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Mother of God. That was tricky to decode. It was also terrible advice. If someone wants to play vidja games, great, let them, but you probably shouldn't encourage it.

Also, I particularly liked this bit:

give me one reason why you shouldn't encourage video games

PseudoFamous

AirsoftAndy wrote: »

give me one reason why you shouldn't encourage video games

Addictivity: It's hard stop playing them once you start, and they cause major procrastination.

Cost: Not exactly cheap, are they?

Social Cost: Linked to addictivity. I've seen a couple guys feck up their lives short term by starting gaming. A friend of lost his longterm girlfriend over the amount of time he began spending on them, many others fecked up their leaving cert over them.

slowburner

Look here

gbee

Greystoner wrote: »

The only other thing I could say is think back to what you got up to as a teenager .

Why do you think she is worried .... she might be a granny in another 10 months .... :rolleyes:

Simile

Thanks everyone for all the sugggestions. I hadn't looked here in ages - too busy trying to exercise some control on wonderful teen!
She hates gaming but thanks for the suggestion. To add fuel to the for/against argument - at least you are less likely to get drunk, high or pregnant while gaming....
Anyway, we seem to have survived. Definitely in a better place now than at beginning of Summer hols and only ten days left - Thank God!
i never did really find a way to keep her occupied in a way I'd like but then my parents probably didn't with me either!!

AirsoftAndy

In all fairness once u have friends and have a active social life ur not going to get addicted and its so much better than ur kid bieng in a field drinking and passing out or starting smoking the ganja lol which leads to stronger thing. and ur friend is a retard with no brain if he lets a game break up his relationship unless he stoped liking her and used it as a excuse. there are pro's and con's to everything in the world and please dont mix up gaming with social games like WOW because they are different and thats why people get addicted as they have no social life and use these social games to talk to people. and yes there expensive but there alot cheaper than a baby.

Jimmy Magee

PseudoFamous wrote: »

Social Cost:Many fecked up their leaving cert over them.

That's a matter of self-control. Sure you could feck up your leaving cert by finding a wall more attractive than studying. It's not the walls fault. It's the person's problem.

AirsoftAndy

AirsoftAndy wrote: »

thats why people get addicted as they have no social life and use these social games to talk to people.

But in your first post you said the games you like are good because:

AirsoftAndy wrote: »

people use these games to communicate and socialise with friends

So use games socially or use games by yourself, which is it?

OP, I really don't think occupying her is the answer. Is she keeping that part-time job or was it just for the holidays? Because the best way to keep her out of trouble is to not give her the money to get into trouble. If her friends are drinking/smoking/doing drugs/hooking up at parties etc. they're not going to just support her forever. If she doesn't have the money for these things then after a while people will stop giving them to her.

If the problem is more to do with just loitering around, and she's not getting into any serious trouble, then give her time. Everyone spends some of their teens dossing, maybe this is her time to get it out of her system.

Kildrought

give me one reason why you shouldn't encourage video games

Because you could end up writing stuff similar to AirsoftAndy's first post in this thread.

I'm impressed with anyone who managed to read beyond the first line.

AirsoftAndy

well im special so i dont need to make sense