What do your 9 year old boys do on playdates?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We still do not allow screens when friends come over, and lately whenever my son has friends over they complain a lot about being bored. My standard reply is "do you want me to take you home?" to which they usually reply "no!" and manage to find something to do. But I'm curious - what do your 9 year old boys do on playdates that is not screen related, if they are not playing outside? My son and his friends used to play a lot of board games, but lately they don't seem so interested. Laser tag guns were a hit for a while, but now are boring too. Same with air hockey table. and Legos. Sigh.

You won't like to hear this but they play x-box. Then they get bored and run around the house, go outside for a while, come back in and play more x-box.

This. If it's not too cold they do take breaks to do something sporty but usually it's back to the video games. We only have puzzle-type and cooperative games.

Can you name some of these games? We have a PS4 and have FIFA soccer and Ratchet and Clank.

[Anonymous]

My boys always played basketball with their friends. We had a hoop outside and they'd have some pretty good games. We did allow a gaming system, however, and they would only play that after they had worn themselves out from playing basketball.

[Anonymous]

Sports, video games, or filming mini-movies. A couple of the kids have go-pro type devices, and we have a karaoke machine, so they make goofy thrillers with soundtracks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They have a lot of nerf gun battles.

This. When inside Legos, hexbugs, beybladea...

[Anonymous]

I much more relaxed with video games when they have friends over, because they are playing with each other, navigating social situations, and bonding. Dig deep into why you think board games are fine, but video games aren’t. The difference is mostly electrons. We don’t own realistic violence games.

And yes, there is a lot of running around the house and outside with nerf guns playing variants of war or tribes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have a lot of nerf gun battles.

This. When inside Legos, hexbugs, beybladea...

Yes to all of this. We also have a bunch of lightsabers and wooden swords they play with. Lots of hunting for zombies.
They make forts, dress up in crazy costumes, run around with walkie talkies. Go for bike and scooter rides (with the nerf guns and swords of course).
They usually ask for video games, which I let them do for the last 15 mins or so.

[Anonymous]

We don't do playdates. He looks out the windows to see who is out and about and if he sees a friend he will get dressed and go out to play. There are tree forts, a woods, and a playground within sight of the house.

[Anonymous]

You are ok with kids shooting each other with guns but no mild video games. Would not be ok with us. Mild video games fine. Nuff guns no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are ok with kids shooting each other with guns but no mild video games. Would not be ok with us. Mild video games fine. Nuff guns no.

You are missing out. Nerf blasters aree so much fun.

[Anonymous]

Tell fart jokes. Play “tackle basketball” in our rec room. Run around with weapons (nerf guns or whatever they have improvised). Lots of time outside on bikes or trampoline or in woods. Sometimes legos or board games. Sometimes planning some sort of elaborate setup (lemonade stand, Percy Jackson battles, etc.)

They do ask for time on electronics (coding games are popular now) but I really limit that, and somehow the neighborhood boys still show up.

[Anonymous]

well it’s a play date so we slow them to do whatever which usually is video games