So what are kids into these days?

thorsoak

Just make sure that you have unlimited download on your broadband .....as an (ahem) aged lady living on her own, I have 40whatsits per month broadband .....15 y/o & 13 y/o gobbled it all up in 3 days downloading whatever it is that they were watching ......:D

elsien

My nephews and nieces are all well aware not to disturb auntie till she emerges of her own accord. The parents did once try a sneaky lie in by sending the kids into my room to play. Never happened again on pain of death (to parents, that is.)
The 11 yr old boy is a nerd and is into buses, trains and timetables. And making stuff. The 8 year olds are into getting wet and muddy. Or Lego. And pretty much occupy themselves. The 14 year old girl is always "bored." Which is fine, as that's no different to when she's at home.:D
As long as they can have their own space to read, mooch, be bored, its fine. They get cranky when they feel they have to be sociable and on their best behaviour for too long. Permission to be antisocial in the spare room suits all of us at times.
And the surprise hit of the last visit was ice skating. (Until the 14 year old broke her arm.)

Tropez

marisco wrote: »

Oh dear, good luck then. The 11 and 13 year old will probably sleep in. The 8 year old may be up at the crack of dawn. My youngest is near that age and wakes up around 6am. There is nothing like appreciating the dawn chorus, whilst trying to pull yourself awake over a strong coffee :cool:

Well I have been up since 6am this morning, remarkable really as I went to bed at our usual late time. I've been pretty productive; I've got all the crap shifted from the upstairs room and put some borrowed beds in there along with some furniture to make it vaguely look like a bedroom. I've discovered the sofa in the sitting room is actually a sofa-bed so that was nice and I've even cleaned up the spare room, which was nice.

Partner was supposed to help but she mumbled something about space bats (yeah, I'm not sure either...) and rolled over to go back to sleep, where she still is and probably will be for another 2 hours. I could put a bit of corned beef in the bed and let the dogs wake her up... but that would be a bit mean.

At least these kids will have their mum with them so she should be more in tune with such bizarre waking hours Honestly, I need another coffee, or Red Bull, or one of these incredibly geeky things I discovered once but am too scared to try - http://www.thinkgeek.com/product/a273/

thorsoak wrote: »

Just make sure that you have unlimited download on your broadband .....as an (ahem) aged lady living on her own, I have 40whatsits per month broadband .....15 y/o & 13 y/o gobbled it all up in 3 days downloading whatever it is that they were watching ......:D

Ahh yes, never fear, unlimited broadband is here. I need it myself for the amount of stuff I download or stream.

elsien wrote: »

My nephews and nieces are all well aware not to disturb auntie till she emerges of her own accord. The parents did once try a sneaky lie in by sending the kids into my room to play. Never happened again on pain of death (to parents, that is.)
The 11 yr old boy is a nerd and is into buses, trains and timetables. And making stuff. The 8 year olds are into getting wet and muddy. Or Lego. And pretty much occupy themselves. The 14 year old girl is always "bored." Which is fine, as that's no different to when she's at home.:D
As long as they can have their own space to read, mooch, be bored, its fine. They get cranky when they feel they have to be sociable and on their best behaviour for too long. Permission to be antisocial in the spare room suits all of us at times.
And the surprise hit of the last visit was ice skating. (Until the 14 year old broke her arm.)

Yes, I can imagine a broken arm may have put a slight dampener on the fun.

Space shouldn't be too much of a problem though whether they get a chance to be on their own is whether the dogs let them.

Seems that they're arriving on Monday afternoon. Should be interesting at least...

elsien

Dogs are good - an excellent diversionary tactic. If all else fails, either a grumpy teenager can go off dog walking and let off steam. Or a grumpy adult can use it as a really good excuse to leave the chaos behind for an hour. And kids can spend hours fussing dogs and telling them all their troubles. Problem solved.

Tropez

elsien wrote: »

Dogs are good - an excellent diversionary tactic. If all else fails, either a grumpy teenager can go off dog walking and let off steam. Or a grumpy adult can use it as a really good excuse to leave the chaos behind for an hour. And kids can spend hours fussing dogs and telling them all their troubles. Problem solved.

That's good, we have quite a few dogs.

marisco_2

Tropez wrote: »

That's good, we have quite a few dogs.

Hours of fun to be had. Kids love dogs. I wonder who will be worn out first. I bet the dogs win.

Tropez

marisco wrote: »

Hours of fun to be had. Kids love dogs. I wonder who will be worn out first. I bet the dogs win.

They probably will. Bunch of lazy couch potatoes until they switch themselves on then they're like the bloody Energizer bunny.

carolan78

The kids in our family all love visiting relatives without kids because all the retro toys and games come out of the loft. With the nerf/water guns, computers ect you should be fine for a week with some outdoor stuff at the ready if needed

susancs

I have a twelve year old and 16 year old and they love visiting houses with dogs as they spend ages teaching them how to shake hands, sit, play ball, taking them for walks with you etc. Netflix is very popular in our house and they usually spend a long time on their mobile phones listening to music with head phones in and social networking (they will want to log into your wi fi). They like youtube videos of various pop bands. Get plenty of food in for the two older ones as teens and nearly teens seem to have hollow legs and need to eat every couple of hours even after having main meals (toast, fruit etc). The girls will probably like to go to the shops. Teen girls can spend ages painting nails, doing hair etc. Cooking cakes and decorating them is fairly cheap and they really enjoy this too. Mine do like board and card games, but are not as keen on games consuls. The 8 year old will probably like the xbox though. They like going swimming, to the cinema, costa coffee, nandos. In this weather paddling pools and water guns in the back garden have been a big hit. They also love the ipad.

HeadAboveWater

You'll have to come back and let us know how you get on please