Do younger teens really do nothing all summer?
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Anonymous
| My 14 year old (almost 15) claims that we are being unfair because we require him to be a CIT at a half day camp (9-1) and volunteer one evening per week this summer. He claims most of his friends are either doing nothing, or a 2 hour per morning crew team thing and then nothing. Could this be right? I feel like we are leaving him with ample free time, which he generally wastes playing video games. |
Anonymous
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My son is pretty much same age and has mostly done nothing. He has 3 weeks of camps coming up.
He’s done a bit of family travel and will do a bit more. He seems very bored and hopefully will be inspired to work next summer. |
Anonymous
| Two hour crew team every morning is far from nothing. If that’s all my kid was doing outside the house every day, I’d be totally fine with that. |
Anonymous
| Whether they do nothing, probably most do something, even if just sports training for a fall sport. But they all WANT to do nothing. Or…sit on their phone or computer |
Anonymous
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Before they were old enough for jobs and excluding the Covid years, our kids did LIT and CIT at camps and also did volunteer work in nursing homes. All were the equivalent of full time jobs.
Covid years sucked with trying to find things for them to do. And once our kids hit 16, they worked. |
Anonymous
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Mine has a few weeks with nothing except for a sport two nights a week. I thought that would be enough (that hangouts with friends would happen more), but it really hasn't panned out (maybe sees friend during day once a week). They are really bored.
I think the grass is always greener ... will aim for less "nothing" next summer. |
Anonymous
No one is knocking the difficulty of crew. The point is that it still leaves a lot of hours free during the day. |
Anonymous
So they didn’t have any vacation? This sounds awful. |
Anonymous
| At that age my kids did a CIT week for volunteer hours, we went away for two weeks. The rest of the time they just hung out with friends. |
Anonymous
| Yep. My 12 year old is largely doing nothing. He has club swim 6 days a week and some math tutoring and some tennis lessons but that’s about it. |
Anonymous
| Sleepaway camp a few weeks, one week of family vacation and one week staying with relatives, CIT or babysitting jobs, working on summer assignments for school. I work at home and when she seems bored and has nothing planned for the day I give additional chores around the house. Towards the end of the summer there will be preseason sports a couple hours a day. |
Anonymous
NP. I guess we have to define what nothing means? Two something very hard for two hours per day is not nothing. |
Anonymous
| I didn’t allow it. My young teens volunteered many hrs a week age 11-13 then worked 14 yo on. Preparation for the working world. |
Anonymous
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It depends on the kid. DS is 12, he has friends who are going to camps and travelling. He has friends who are doing summer swim team and just hanging out. DS has 3 day camps that he choose that he is attending, he is going to Scout camp with his Troop, and we have family vacations. He has about 2 1/2 weeks with nothing planned. He said the first week was fine but kind of boring. I am hoping he enoys over night camp because I think that is a great option for kids, I loved it as a kid, and would give him something different to do next year.
Maybe we are lucky but DS enjoys some academic camps and those are easier to find now that he is entering MS. The more outdoor active summer camps that he liked when he was younger are less interesting to him so those have dropped off. |
Anonymous
| THis is a tough age. We are doing sleepaway camp for 7 weeks. I realize that is not an option for everyone but my kids love it and it is 7 weeks with zero screens. |