Spending more time with my teenager

It’s no secret: I am ill-equipped when it comes to understanding “teenager”. My son and I seem to be on opposite sides of the mental highway lately and it kinda sucks sometimes. Well, okay, most times. He is spending the holiday with his dad in Cape Town and as much as it pains me to be away from any of my kids, I also welcome the much needed break from having to deal with having a growing adolescent at home. But, to be honest, the break has also made me realize that I need to be spending more time with my teenager. And I’m guessing that making him clean the kitchen with me does not qualify as “spending quality time together”. Bummer. Back to the drawing board. Here are a few things I came up with instead:

Doing something he likes to do
I’ve given this a lot of thought and I figured that doing stuff that he enjoys doing would be a great way to connect with my teen. Things like learning to play one of his XBox games, going with him to watch a soccer match or to the movies to see one of his faves, would be a really easy way to do that. I’m sure that showing interest in things that he finds interesting will make him feel supported and hey, maybe even understood. (Fingers crossed)

Introducing him to something that I like to do
There are a bunch of things that I am into, that could be of interest to him too. If not, oh well, let’s try again tomorrow! Things like geocaching (love it!), going to explore the monuments in our city or even staying home to Netflix/Youtube and chill. I guess the secret is to not overwhelm or force him to like the same things that I do. But I am sure that there will be ample opportunity to bond should he (surprise surprise) enjoy watching America’s Next Top Model as much as I do. Not holding my breath though.

Learn to do something new together
Okay, guys, I’ve been giving this some thought and I figured that learning to do something new together would be a great way for my teen and I to bond. Taking up a new hobby – like fishing, perhaps – could be the answer to reconnecting with your teenager. In fact, fishing is not that difficult. Well, that’s what I read over on Ultra Fisher. Here are a few tips for beginners, from the website:

Find a fishing buddy and/or a mentor
Besides for finding the right person to spend all that time with (fishing is a thing of patience, yo) we would also need to find a mentor or fishing pro, to show us the ropes.

Practice your set up
According to Ultra Fisher, you need to set up your gear every time you go fishing. It would be ideal to practice your rig set up at home. Again, something we could do together.

Practice casting and line control
Casting your line and learning to control it are probably some of the more important skills to learn about fishing. We would need to make sure we get it right, by practicing this at home, in an open area.

Spend as much time fishing as possible
Well, this goes without saying. Practice makes perfect. And although we’re not looking to be pro-fishermen, I am sure that the more time we spend doing it, the better we’ll get at it AND the more opportunity for us to bond.

Getting use to the feel of fish
Chances are, if we’re out there trying to catch fish, we’ll probably end up having to touch said fish! Learning how to handle fish (especially a live one) is probably a good idea.

So what do you think, friends? What are some of the things you would do, to bond with your teenager?

This post and its fishing content was sponsored by Ultra Fisher, but the rest of the content and the very real desire to spend more time with my teenager is entirely my own. I promise.