DD 13 can't find ways to occupy herself

amother

Sapphire

Sat, Feb 20 2016, 10:56 pm

My dd is 13 and very outgoing. She constantly is going out with friends. The problem lies when she is at home. She is often bored. I try to encourage her by buying books for her and sometimes playing board games. She doesn't like reading and has little patience for bored games. Often she'll annoy her younger siblings out of boredom. She told me yesterday when I questioned her about maybe buying a certain book, that she reads every other page and then just puts it away cause she has no patience. I just don't know if this is something I should be concerned with or maybe encourage her find something to do
with her time. She loves baking but (not bashing her just stating a fact) she is quite lazy and I'm always but always cleaning up after her so I'm not exactly looking to be more busy for myself to clean up after her. She's bh ok in school and in her social life. This is an issue in the home mainly during the weekend and evenings. Any suggestions of experienced mommas out there Smile

? TIA

TwinsMommy

Sat, Feb 20 2016, 11:03 pm

art projects? music lessons? gross motor activities (my kids are younger but have a swingset, crash pad, trampoline, basketball hoop)? ipad/computer games? Science experiments?

My twins are 9 and also don't like to read a book page by page---- so I still read TO them/ with them if it's a series I know they'll enjoy. Books they've read before sit on the shelf and when I'm not reading to/with them they can flip through those again and re-read whatever pages/chapters they want.

Things my twins aren't quite ready for but your daughter might be---- extreme dot to dot, adult coloring books.

amother

Sapphire

Sat, Feb 20 2016, 11:26 pm

Thanks for ur reply. She has an iPod and could spend literally a whole evening on it. I'm looking more for an idea away from the screen. Adult coloring books may be an option. She also has loads of after school activities but as I wrote the challenge is mainly when she is not being entertained.

TwinsMommy

Sat, Feb 20 2016, 11:31 pm

I set time limits on computer/ipad. My kids (9, twins) are still young enough that I can announce art project time or science experiment time and I get pushback but they eventually give in--- not sure whether you can do that with a teen, but you can certainly take away the ipod because time is up, and make suggestions as to what she can do next (or you could do together). My twins are home 12 weeks during the summer, 2 weeks for winter break, a week for spring break--- no daycamp (too special needs for typical camp, and we can't afford the fancy special needs daycamps), so I have some experience being their cruise director. Smile

When we're filling a whole day, I generally don't allow ipad/computer time until we've been outside for a few hours--- whether playing outside, or running errands, or going to a playground or whatever--- I use it as a transition break---- come home, chill out for 20 minutes, THEN on to the next thing. I have them help me cook/bake too.

Also, I do lego projects with my kids--- don't know if 13 year old girls are into it, but we'll set a timer for 20 minutes and see how much of a complicated Lego set we can do together.