u/East-Wind4300

The other day I was putting my younger one to sleep and was forced to tell a story out of nowhere. I was fully unprepared so I threw together a quick story. a decent one I'd say..considering I had about 3% brain battery left.

I finish the story and before my younger one even reacts, my older one from across the room goes:"Dad... that's such a simple baby story. Even for him. You can do better."

Not gonna lie, I sat there for a second like...Excuse me sir

guess this is what you get when your kids have better imagination and creativity than you!

A few nights ago after dinner, one of the kids randomly started acting out a song for us to guess and somehow it turned into this whole thing.

now for the past few night we’ve been doing “song charades” and the house gets absolutely ridiculous. The kids are yelling guesses over each other, my younger one commits WAY too hard to the performances, and my older one keeps insisting everyone’s clues are terrible while laughing (mind you he's 11 and we barely get to see that)

It’s honestly the most involved I’ve seen all of us together in a while.

What I didn’t expect is how nice it feels. Everyone’s actually present. Nobody’s disappearing into separate rooms. And now I’m in that phase where I’m thinking: okay this is great… but how long before they suddenly decide it’s lame 😅

I’m half tempted to introduce things like Heads Up or other guessing games just to keep the momentum going without making it feel forced.

Either way, so much fun!

So we’re heading out for a short holiday soon, and instead of excitement… I’ve got an 11-year-old who’s mostly sulking because he feels like he’s going to miss out on whatever his friends are doing back home.

It really hit me in two ways. One, the FOMO at this age is very real. And two, I think a big part of it is just that he knows he won’t be able to “be part of things” while he’s away.

He doesn’t have social media (which we’re sticking to for now), and while some of his friends do game together, I don’t want that to be the only way he connects either.

So now I’m wondering… what are other ways kids this age actually spend time together online that still feel social? Not just texting, not just being on the same game, but something that feels like they’re doing something together.

Are your kids doing anything like this? Or is it mostly gaming/social media at this age?

Would love ideas because right now it feels like we’ve limited the usual options…