"What can I do?" he said.
"Nothing I suggest" I replied, "no teen ever does what their parents suggest on principle."
Sure enough, my ideas of reading, piano, guitar, tidying the garden and cycling fell on deaf ears, or rather, incredulous dismissive ones.
I asked him to think of the advantages and disadvantages of playing on the XBox and to present his case of why he should be allowed to play on it as much as he liked. His best argument was that 'it passed the time'. Even I could do better than that! As I disagreed with his ideal of 4hrs per weekend day and 2hrs per week day, he now has to find an interest, and preferably a cheap one, or find a way to finance an expensive one.
Result, he's sulking.
I suggested he start a blog - "13 and bored, what can I do?" to elicit ideas from other kids about what they do outside the realm of electronic games. As I said to him, no one's going to be impressed that he's a whizz on Assassin's Creed II when he goes for an interview somewhere, whether university or a job. Or, when asked why he does mountain biking, that 'my mum forced me'...
Motivation is somewhat lacking.
