Quality time with your teens. Describe yours.

Me and my mom always talk about anything. She is my best-best-best-best friend!!!! I love her very much:):):):):):):):)

When my kids were teens, I used to go out for a nice meal with each of them. They told me later that they liked the individual attention.

I am 21 now and no longer living at home, but when I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time with my mom and we had dinner together almost every night. I would go to movies with her a few times a month and would spend evenings watching TV together. :)

From your posts, I would never have guessed you were old enough to have a 16-year-old kid. :)

My parents and I did lots of stuff together, although it was a bit harder to just have one parent with one kid because there are 4 kids in my family, but that happened as well.

Some examples were my mom and I would go to open houses. It’s something we both love and are interested in and we still do it even now. We went to a few when I visited for spring break; it’s just something we do together. My mom has gone to the symphony with me. (But that’s also because no one else would want to go!) My mom and I also watched Lost together.

My dad and I share a strong interest in computers, so we have gone to Fry’s Electronics together and spent a ton of time there. It’s a lot fun. We’ve also gone hiking together, although my brother usually accompanied. My dad and I also went to my boyfriend’s lacrosse games together (and that was before he was my boyfriend!) but I was asked to take photographs at the games and I had no one else to go with, so that became something we did together regularly.

And of course, all of these including one-on-one talks with my parents, which I loved any opportunity for.

Spending time with my 16 year old daughter makes me realize how lucky I am to have a child who is growing into such an interesting person with a grand sense of humor! Most amazing to me is the fact that she has managed to dodge so many of my personality flaws!
We love to travel together (anywhere from the local sushi bar to the other side of the world), see movies, plays, friends, or just sit up at night and chat. It is all about the talk. And the laughs. You’ve got to have the laughs!

Camping and traveling is one I’ve enjoyed with my folks.

BBQs in the backyard and hammock for great conversations was another one.

Gailcalled…like your idea of one on one dinner out with the teenagers when my kids are that age. I will have to remember that.

When I was a step parent then I really enjoyed time with my stepdaughter doing things with her I knew others weren’t interested in or had time to do with her. We’d try different kinds of restaurants, go on beach picnics, search for bookstores. A few times I took her on specific treks- a day set aside just for trying on jeans brands and noting which looked best on her, another day to show her where to buy beads & how to string them, the free days at the local museums, a day to learn table settings or the fun ones like walking in heels, body posture and learning to drive a manual transmission car. With a nephew of mine I got the pleasure of taking him shopping for his first dress suit and senior year clothes along with planning his first house party. It was a lot of fun!

I remember doing the same things with my parents as a child and as a teenager. My dad had two canoes: a canadian and a kayak; so he used to take us canoeing down the canal. There was a pub at one end, so we’d stop for a pub lunch and a fizzy pop, then canoe home again. Sometimes we would cycle down the canal path instead. He also took us rock climbing, which I found terrifying. Once we’d climbed to the top he’d make us abseil back down again. It was horrible! But I’m glad he made us do it. He also took us swimming a lot, in the pool or the sea. Both involved getting fish and chips for tea after. My mum would take us for walks (even in the rain, no excuses), or out shopping in town. She didn’t have a car, so we would go for day trips on the train, to museums or other points of local interest. We all love books, and second-hand book shopping is a family favourite. We went out for meals, and although my parents divorced when I was young, they somehow managed to maintain Sunday dinners together as a family for a great many years, with various new partners in tow.

We did all these things throughout our teens, just less and less frequently as we got older. Then when we hit our twenties, we started doing things together all over again!