What is it with teenage boys??
It's Sarurday, no school, I have 4 in my house.... Playing on Xbox, which is all they want to do.

Don't want to sound like a grandad, I'm only 37 but at 15 I was out, doing up old motorbikes and taking them up the tracks, chasing girls, hanging around, going into town.

Not these days!!! Sit in bedroom all day or school or football club!

Pesky kids!!!

My grandkids are the same......I feel kids today are missing out on a lot

When I was a kid my parents couldn't get me in the house!

Home from school....homework done.....dinner scoffed down.....out with the mates A kick around with the mates or hitting the local cafes checking out the talent When we were 13/14 we used to build our own bikes from old frames we would get from the local dump, straightening out bent forks....looking for wheels that weren't buckled....buying tyres....assembling, buying nuts, washers...chain links etc....some spray paint to spruce them up a bit......loved all that stuff.  2010 RRS TDV6 3.0 Autobiography - Stornoway Grey
2006 RRS TDV6 2.7 HSE -Java Black
2008 BMW 3 Series 2.l
2006 BMW 5 series 2.l

Sometimes I think the same about my son when he's in his room on the xbox,
But the world we live in now is a lot different to when we were kids, these days we have kids carrying knives and mugging people for phones, and they don't care about hurting anyone.
I know I can't compleatly rest until he gets in.
And yes you can't wrap they up in Cotton wool and my son is out more than he's in, but when he does say I'm staying in tonight dad, I know my nerves can have a night off.

JamesRoberts wrote:

What is it with teenage boys??
at 15 I was out, doing up old motorbikes and taking them up the tracks, chasing girls, hanging around, going into town.

I was doing all that, and also burning off copper wire at night (so nobody could see the black smoke) for a weigh in, fixing up pushbikes and selling them, flogging horse manure by wheelbarrow on the local allotments, melting baling string from straw bales together with a candle to make balls of string to sell on the same allotments, cutting the neighbours grass for money and learning roofing by day.

The result is twenty odd years later, I learned enough stuff to be able to make a few bob and buy a Range Rover Sport.

Not sure what the current crop will turn out like. I have a 10 year old that sits prodding a phone or tablet at any given opportunity (apart from Karate and football that he likes). At his age I had 6v batteries from road work lights wired in series powering the lights in the shed I built in the back yard from old pallets and a half roll of roofing felt from a skip. Lads then had to have a decent den, right? Mine had 12v electric lights and some previously enjoyed carpet so girls would visit it.

I blame the parents for buying their kids all the latest gadgets. When i were a kid, i did most of the above . Always tinkering with push bikes, then moved onto motor bikes when i wasn't helping out at the local farm or at work with my dad. Used to get my mates round playing darts in the kitchen if it was raining outside, otherwise we would be out playing football, cricket rugby or playing a varity of other games or go on a cross county run. Then people wonder why kids are over weight these days. How things have changed.

Don't get me wrong, I know the world is a different place now, and burning old motor bikes up country lanes is illegal but by 15 and 1/4 ( the 1/4 so important for a teenager!!), I was already selling horse manure, washing up in pub kitchens, cleaning behind the butchers on a Saturday. Car washing. Anything really.
He got the damn xbox with Christmas and birthday money which is fair enough. He did a paper round for about 3 weeks then couldn't get up!!! Which I also got him a new bike to do it on!

Anyway, I'm Mr unpopular tonight as I've come up with a new regime.
The bike is mine now.
He gets £15 a month pocket money.
Anything else he has to go out and work for, for which I'll lend him my bike to go to and from!

Kids think money grows on trees. Everything (which isn't much), we have is paid for by hard work.
I'm not going to act like a bank for a 15 year old when no one did for me.
Sure I'll help out IF he works.

Apparently I'm so unfair and horrible compared to his friends Dads!!! I've told him to ask any of these friends Dads if they are willing to adopt!!!!

You bought him a bike I did my paper round on a combination of several bikes i'd built up from spares off my mates bikes that they had thrown to one side once they had got a newer bike. I then saved up my paper round money and bought myself a brand new bike from Halfrauds That was when i was 13. Couldn't get up in the morning Again, parents to blame imo, stop them playing on x box till all hours and send them to bed. Get them up in the morning if possible yourself Make them appreciate money at a young age and that will stand them in good stead later on in life just like it has done for me. Kids really don't know they are born today

Unfortunately because of where we live I had to get him something. And to be fair it was 0530.
I think once he realises he is skint all the time he will get on the phone and find some work.
He's only got a couple of years to save up for a car, coz he isn't driving my RRS!!!!

My dad used to let me drive him back from the pub when i was only 15 and he was p i 55 e d, he used to allow me to put his car away in the garage which was 200 yards away from our house just off a main road, i used to get it out for him every morning before he went to go to work As we say, things were different back in the 70/80's it also helped that my dad knew all the local coppers. As soon as i'd passed my driving test at the age of 17, i was expecting to get in my dads car and off. Oh no, that wasn't the case. I'm not putting you on my insurance to wreck my no claims bonus he said Save up an buy your own car, and get your own insurance. Again, there was method in his decision. One of the reasons i am now enjoying cheap insurance with full NCB.

JamesRoberts wrote:

Kids think money grows on trees. Everything (which isn't much), we have is paid for by hard work.