12 year old now very into hanging with his friends

[Anonymous]

We play poker.

[Anonymous]

My 12-year old son and I have a "tradition" of Saturday Mom/Son lunches. I let him pick the restaurant. Sometimes we take one of his friends, but it's usually just the two of us. He also loves to make popcorn and rent a movie or go to the movies. These are both things that his Dad isn't particularly enthused about, so it works for bonding time. I do love watching sports, so I also buy football tickets for the family a couple of times in the fall (Redskins or college when one of "our" teams is in town), and I'm the one who talks about his fantasy football team with him. It really does help to be able to talk about things they're interested in, so it might be useful to occasionally read Sports Illustrated. Even just occasionally asking a question about what they think is going to happen to RGIII (or even who has the coolest uniforms), or whatever, gets you all kinds of "Mom" points.

[Anonymous]

Echoing the prior posters - I think a 12 yr old boy won't turn down food, so make lunch/dinner out with mom a routine whether 1x a week or 1x in two weeks. If/when you can get him to talk to you about school, friends etc. and he tells you what the boys are saying in the locker room or cafeteria or whatever -- DO NOT use that as your time to lecture about "we as a family don't do that/don't believe that/aren't ok with that." I mean make your notes if you think that he's getting an attitude about treating women poorly or being rude to teachers or whatever, so you can address those things as they pop up. But if you make lunch about lecturing him, rather than just having fun -- he'll view it as a drag and won't go or if you force him to go, scarf down his food and all answers to your questions will be "fine" and "i dunno."

[Anonymous]

Also, don't give up if you have a lunch or two when he is tired and barely talks. The next time he might talk your ear off.