Hi there
I know my situation isn't as bad as some, but it's getting me down and I don't know what to do.
My son (13) is becoming less and less communicative and helpful, and spending more and more time on the x-box and the computer. All in the living room - he wants a pc for his bedroom for xmas, but I am leaning on the side of 'definitely not' at the moment.
He no longer wants to do the activities he used to do, stating he is too tired to do them.
The bigger issue (for me) is, it transpired this morning that a couple of his teachers have berated him for having a bad attitude, and one of them has told him (in his words) that he has to change his 'whole personality'. I couldn't get any more info from him, he wouldn't go into detail. He was very upset when he was saying this though.
What can I do to try and improve this attitude issue - that he claims he doesn't have but I know what they are seeing - he is stubborn, he struggles a bit with writing although this has improved a lot over the last two years, and when he has no interest in something he has no inclination to work at it.
I am thinking of trying the following things to try and encourage him to socialise and talk a bit more, and maybe bring him out of himself:
-Limit his pc/xbox time
-Eat more meals as a family (we used to have every meal as a family, but this has slipped)
-Take the kids out more - maybe swimming, geocaching - it is limited though what I can do with them - there is no cinema or ice rink here for example.
-Maybe spend more time playing family board games?
I don't think it helps that his dad and I split up some months ago, and his male family influences are not ideal - both his dad and his uncle are faily anti-social. I don't have any friends with similarly aged boys to visit - a positive male role model would be ideal, but they are few and far between.
Please or to access all these features
Please
or
to access all these features
Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.
Teenagers
How do I improve things?
7 replies
JeezyPeeps · 17/09/2010 09:23
OP posts:
Please create an account
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.