"Our house is boring. You guys are old."

[Anonymous]

Beyond the teen snark, there is a grain of truth to my daughter's critique. We come home tired from work and retreat to our separate screens during the week. Occasionally out to dinner. She has a sport and an after-school club. We cook, sometimes together. We are older parents. Any suggestions as to how to become hipper and happier?

[Anonymous]

Stop worrying about being 'hipper'. You will instantly become happier.

[Anonymous]

So you don't do anything with your dd? What I did with my kids, still do, but they are in college now, is go on the weekends to Nandos, Bethesda for cupcakes, movies, Renwick gallery, during the week to all the football games, she was a cheerleader(I am from Europe and knew nothing about it, but I sat there and smiled at baby girl) and no matter how cold it was, I was there at those dumb games getting pneumonia. Watching practices of tennis for DS and matches whenever I could. He liked it a a lot.
Going to grocery store and after school to do something, Target even. Our weekends and evenings were crazy busy.

[Anonymous]

Worry about your rude teen.

[Anonymous]

No screens for a starter. I think you'd become infinitely more interesting if you did literally anything other than get on your phone. Listen to music while you cook; read books together — find some on their level and you'll have something to talk about; go to a museum on the weekend; but most of all just take interest in their interests and find ways to expand their horizons on those fronts.

TL;DR: screens down, learn their interests.

[Anonymous]

Tell your DC to grow up. The issue is not you, it's your DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Beyond the teen snark, there is a grain of truth to my daughter's critique. We come home tired from work and retreat to our separate screens during the week. Occasionally out to dinner. She has a sport and an after-school club. We cook, sometimes together. We are older parents. Any suggestions as to how to become hipper and happier?

[Anonymous]

What hobbies do you all do as a family? Hiking, playing games, watching movies with popcorn. I don't think as a parent that you get to just sit on your screens at night until she's in bed. Since you like to cook, what about new recipes? Dance parties while you cook? Do you all plan out weekend roadtrips?

Being an older parent doesn't matter at all. My parents are excellent grandparents who still have lots of fun things they do with my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell your DC to grow up. The issue is not you, it's your DC

Completely disagree.

[Anonymous]

Start by teaching her that it is no acceptable to use "old" as a pejorative. It is a battle I fight constantly with my teens. Otherwise sounds like an opportunity to plan more fun activities in and out of the house.

[Anonymous]

Is she an only child? Do you do things as a family on weekends? Vacation, etc? Extended family?

[Anonymous]

One simple thing that brings us a lot of joy is game night.

If you have young kids, try something like Apples to Apples or settlers of Catan if you all your kids are teens. It’s easy and nice to laugh and get competitive and silly.

I will say that many teens enjoy a lot of the “little kid” traditions a lot longer than you’d expect. My SIL used to deck the whole house in Christmas lights because the kids liked it so much. One year she mentioned she was thinking of toning it down and it was her teen daughter who asked her to keep doing it. She offered to help and they spent the weekend setting it up. I think my SIL was really surprised it still meant a lot to her daughter.

[Anonymous]

Any siblings?

I guess lighten up a little? Commit to putting your screens down and see what happens. Listen to music while you cook. Walk the dog after dinner. Get a dog if you don't have one. Shoot hoops in the driveway if you have that. Just get outside and get active. Go for a walk. Start with small stuff that feels true to your personality.

This really shouldn't have anything to do with your age. I don't think kids notice if you are older than the other old parents. We are all old to them. (I had older parents growing up and didn't notice.) It's how you're acting, not your age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell your DC to grow up. The issue is not you, it's your DC

Wow. That's kind of something a grumpy old parent would say.

Not a great suggestion.

[Anonymous]

My kids have started saying similar things when they come home from college. THe problem with the suggestions to 'go get cupcakes, go to a movie," is that honestly there isn't that much money left after paying for college for two kids at the same time. We honestly can't afford to entertain the kids that much when they come home.

We can't really afford to entertain ourselves that much either -- I see events at the museums, etc. that would be fun for my DH and me to do as a couple, but they're not in the budget right now.

In other words, part of the reason we're boring is that we're poor. (People do things on screens because it doesn't cost any money. That's the same reason that poor people watch a lot of TV.)

Other than board games, what are some things that we can do to get out of a rut that won't break the bank?