How to occupy an almost 12 year old boy for a week?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, my little brother is coming for a visit during his spring break. We’ve got a few evening/weekend plans, including laser tag (which he covets) frisbee in the park, favorite board games my parents are tired of, and a movie.

The problem is that I work from home, and I often leave the house with my laptop to work. Helps me focus, not feel stir crazy, etc etc. He’s a laid back kid, and we’ve planned a trip to the main library one day, so he can get a library card here and then roam around and read while I work. I imagine that’ll be kind of boring for him if we do it more than twice.

He’s bringing his PS2, and we’ve got an Xbox and a Wii in our apartment, so with those, access to our other computer, gigantic snowdrifts outside, and libary books I’m not worried about him being able to occupy himself during the day. I’m definitely not worried about having to constantly entertain him, or anything like that, becase like I said, he’s laid back.

The thing is, over the past 5 years or so, we’ve only spent time together during mutual vacations, so we’ve been able to do whatever we want. I’ll still have to work during the days he’s here, and I’d like to be able to get him out of the house, because my parents are homebodies and he doesn’t have many small adventures and he’s kind of shy. I’d introduce him to the neighbor kids, who are around his age, but they don’t have their break at the same time he does.

He’s right at the age where he could be trusted home alone but 1) I do want to spend time with him while he’s here and 2) while there’s a 98% chance he’d be fine, his judgement is occasionally…well, that of a pubescent boy. You get the picture. I don’t want to have to explain to my parents how he broke his leg doing something dumb while I was out. (I also don’t want him to break his leg, of course.) That sounds like I trust him less than I do–he’s responsible, but…well I’ll just have to hope you guys understand what I mean. Or if you think I’m worrying to much, tell me so. :slight_smile: #1 is the big reason I’d like to hang out with him during the day, though.

The plan right now is to just work at home while he visits, letting him have his own space during the day, with one day including a trip to the library and my favorite coffee shop for lunch. The park is far too soggy for me to work in at this point. Anyone else been in a similar situation or have advice about other day-time trips? Or does it seem like my plans are reasonable?

2

Verily, thou hath nailed it! You’ve pretty much got it.

Don’t forget that - assuming an average to above average intelligence - a twelve year-old is getting out of the passive “I’m bored!!!” stage. If there is the odd hour or two here and there where things wear thin, he’ll be able to deal. He’ll also be able to make his own fun to a large extent. As long as you’ve got a couple of bigger activities planned (as you have) spaced across the time he’s with you, and are going to provide some gentle, slightly distant supervision with ad hoc indoor activities otherwise up to the boy, you’ll both be fine.

3

How to occupy an almost 12 year old boy for a week?

Get him a 12 year old girl? :smiley:

Ok, no. Honestly, I’ll think he’ll be fine. Does he have XBOX and Wii at home? If not, your biggest worry is going to be prying the controllers out of his sweaty clutches to eat and sleep. When you’re going out, ask him if he wants to come along, and if he says no, don’t sweat it. (Assuming he’s had experience with staying home alone, of course.) Call in every few hours to make sure he hasn’t burned the place down and Bob’s your uncle.

You might want to give your porn stash to a trusted friend, along with any other paraphenalia. He will snoop, it’s what kids are best at.

4

Thanks for the reassurance, guys. He’s my brother and all, but I’ve honestly got more experience with tiny kids than with practically teenagers. (Ack, practically teenagers!)

He does have an old Xbox, but not a 360, which we have, so I’m sure you’re right, WhyNot.

5

And if that doesn’t work, there’s always vodka.

6

Let him find your porn stash.

7

“How to occupy an almost 12 year old boy for a week?”

Ask Father O’Reilly.

8

Trunk beat me to my second joke. My first was my answer to dealing with anyone under legal age - duct tape.

9

It has uses even for those that are over legal age.

10

Mixing vodka and duct tape can never end well. He’ll have to wait until college to experience that, like Og intended. I’d like to send him home without any emotional scars, all the same.

I’m sure he’s figuring things out fine in the porn department. He is 12 after all. I found my mom’s trashy romance novels about that age. My parents wash their hands of it and tend to go the old fashioned route of assuming you’ll pick things up with a combination of bathroom walls and hormonal curiosity. Having been there myself, I’ve tried to be available for embarrassing questions.

(But omigod, he can’t possibly talk about sex with his sister, can he? I mean, gross! You see, he’s far to mature for that sort of thing. Until he flees the room in horror.)

11

Treat him like an adult friend – ask if he needs anything, take him out for dinner, wheedle him into discussing things he’s interested in, show him the sights. Take him to that coffee shop you use the laptop in and hang out for a while. He’ll appreciate the companionship, and really appreciate not being treated like a kid. He is a kid, but he’s had over a decade of being told that, so your behaving otherwise might mean a lot.

12

A Ruger 10/22 and a box of ammo. Keeps boys entertained for hours!

Or Halo3. He’ll probably beat it in less than a week, but if you drag him to the library a couple times and make him sleep occasionally, he’ll be fine.

Satellite or cable TV and/or internet access can still distract a 12 year old for hours, especially if there’s munchies nearby.

Sounds to me like you have things under control. They’re not as needy at that age and might appreciate being trusted a bit.

13

squeegee, you’ve expressed my goals exactly. That’s what I’m trying to do. I think that’s what he needs right now, given that I was once his age and had a similar childhood, but I wanted some fresh opinions.

Thanks again, everybody.

14

You could a get a free trial account for an MMORPG like World of Warcraft (10 days) or Lord of the Rings Online (7 days).

Granted it’s just another video game but if he hasn’t played one before he might like the community aspect of it and playing with other live people. I haven’t played a console game, even though I just bought one a couple of weeks ago, in quite a while becuase I prefer running around killing stuff with other people and talking and helping out others.

Of course their is always the risk he’ll get addicted to it and then go back home and beg your parents to get him an actual account and then get all his friends involved and turn into zombies for a couple of years and then decide he wants be a game programmer when he grows up like my step-brother did. Although I am not to blame for getting him addicted and he was 14 when he started.

I just thought of something. You could tell him about the trial account and see if he has a friend that might like one too and then while he is at your place he could play with his friend back home and they could chit-chat and stuff just like if they were on the phone.

15

How far out in the suburbs are you? You could give him money and directions to get to the nearest fast food place if you needed a hour or two without him.

16

I think we’re all set on the entertainent front. We’re video game and DVD junkies, so he’s got plenty of digital goodness to rot his brain while he’s here. And we’re pretty far out in the suburbs of Rochester, so he’d have to go pretty far to explore by himself. I’ll mention it to him if he starts looking stir crazy.

Good ideas, though. I’m sure the change of scenery (and the chance to hang out with us, cause we’re awesome) is most of the draw. If I told him I need quiet for a conference call, or not to bother me for a couple hours, he’d leave me alone except for an emergency. Probably wouldn’t even have to ask for it, honestly. I just want to make sure visiting me isn’t as boring as staying home for break, while still getting work done.

17

Quite a few forty year-olds, and all. :smiley:

18

You have a Wii? Buy copies of Super Smash Brothers Brawl & Guitar Hero 3. He’ll plug in like Borg. (But you’ll grow to hate ‘Slow Ride’ by Foghat.)

19

Does he like baseball? Get a copy of one of the baseball previews.

20

Dunno where you live, but I’d like to point out that many states, such as Illinois, have laws that restrict “home alone-ness” to persons 14 years of age and older.

If you live in Illinois, and you leave him home-alone, and he sets fire to the house, or otherwise attracts the attention of Officialdom, his life, and your life, and his parents’ lives, all suddenly belong to the Department of Child and Family Services, and the lot of ya may never, ever get out of their computers. His folks may even temporarily lose custody of him to foster care if whatever he did was heinous or dangerous enough (setting fire to something, joyriding in a car and racking it up, getting passing-out drunk on your liquor and needing a trip to the ER to have his stomach pumped, assaulting another child). If he breaks his leg while you’re gone, your lives are all toast.

And it only takes one phone call by a “concerned” neighbor to the DCFS hotline (“that little boy is in there all by himself…”) to render all your lives totally miserable for the next few months. Because they always tend to assume worst-case-scenario, and they swoop down and take him out of the home, and pop him in foster care, and you come home and he’s not there and there are cops waiting for you. Not good.

Just sayin’.