Proud father moments

[Unimog]

I don't think you can really generalize like that. Some kids when they are 12 or 13 and others not ever. I think the major factor is how many activities you really like doing together. My boys and I enjoyed mountain biking and hiking together until they day they each moved out and we still enjoy doing things occasionally now that they are adults living on their own. My daughter is a little more apart, even when living at home. Like any relationship, it sometimes requires a little bit of effort on both sides.

 

[I Lean]

Mine are 16 and 14. My 16 Y.O. has not really wanted to be around us for at least a couple years....but we keep making him. It's always a fight to get out the door, but once we're doing whatever we're doing he has fun. He just can't always admit it.

 

[DesertRam]

Hard to say, and hard to generalize. I suppose we're relatively close-knit. My eldest just turned 18. The week before that, we had a great daddy-daughter day out hunting Barbary sheep. We loved it. The other two, 16 and 11, also stick pretty close at times. They all have their independent streaks, but seem to recognize the importance of hanging around family, at least sometimes...

 

[Hickey]

As teenagers they seem to hate every family thing you force them to participate in. Six or seven years later they will probably tell you how much they enjoyed it and now miss it.

 

[Cody]

You can take my kids with you if you have extra room

 

[UNSTUCK]

We are boaters and my teenage girls love it. And my 9yo son. Hard to be much closer together than in a boat.


Also, I frequently remind my kids that if they are too old to hang out with me they are too old to live in my house.

 

[N-Smooth]

My kids are 8, 5 and 18 months. Right now we’re a camp trailer family but I’m sure when they’re teenagers we’ll become a boating family. I plan to shift our hobbies to match their interests.

 

[UNSTUCK]

That’s what we did. Kids didn’t have much interest in jeeping so we moved on. Hoping that we can start jeeping again though.

 

[N-Smooth]

That’s what we did. Kids didn’t have much interest in jeeping so we moved on. Hoping that we can start jeeping again though.

Oh I’m never stopping rock crawling. If they don’t like it they can kick rocks 🤣

 

[mbryson]

Can I get some thoughts from those of you with older children?
when do they decide they don’t want to hang with mom and dad anymore?
my reason for asking is that I have 12 year old girls. We are talking about maybe buying a newer camper trailer.. but if they are going to abandon us in a few years or so, maybe we will wait and get something more suited to less children.

if you and your wife are in, I’d go for it. The kids can have a good time or be assholes but they can come along as well. they can choose to have a good time and I’ll have a good time. They choose the other, I can meet their assholedness and raise a little. I have plenty

 

[anderson750]

15-16. But we still get a lot of other time because of racing.

 

[DesertRam]

To add a little specificity - all of our kids still love going and doing in the camper. Some of our greatest family memories have been made on trips with the camper. I say do it. A few years ago we upgraded to a nicer bunkhouse fifth wheel that we all love. We use it pretty regularly and I have never regretted spending that money.

 

[glockman]

You do know that a bigger trailer means another diesel truck unless you want to cross over to gallons per mile

All of my kids had a phase from 12/13 to 17/19 where they were forced to come along but at a point, I got tired of forcing them and dealing with attitudes so I stopped forcing them as much. They are now 18,20,21,24 and are all out on their own and independent. I think there was a trade off made to let them be independent when I wanted them to be with me that later paid off. After their teen age angst, they are self sufficient people who like being with us most of the time. My best friend in the entire world aside from my wife is my 24 year old son. We are very close but even he had a few years he preferred his friends.
Buy the bigger trailer now. In no time, they will have friends that want to go and then spouses. That was one exception, when my kids could invite a friend, they were happier to go, occupied for most of the day and we still had activities that we did together while camping. It was a win win and when feeding/housing 5 kids, another one was hardly noticeable.

 

[Kevin B.]

My youngest will still go with me at the drop of a hat, but the older boy hasn't liked coming along on trips unless there's other kids his age for several years now. He'll still MTB with me, but camping and 4WD trips and suchlike he doesn't enjoy as much without somebody else to get in trouble with.

 

[Houndoc]

Our kids (21, 23 and 25, the older 2 married) still look forward to specific family outings like Lake Powell. I am taking that into account as I look to upgrade the boat this year knowing their education plans will make it so they won't be buying their own for another decade at best.

And just getting together as a family is actually become more of a thing for them. As an example, we were planning a Sunday dinner to celebrate our youngest's birthday last weekend, with planning going on while my wife and I where in Hawaii.

One asked 'what time is everyone planning on going over'? They started sharing what time they planned to arrive- on Saturday. We had to point out we didn't get home until midafternoon. We ended up with the three kids, two spouses and a boyfriend at the house from Saturday afternoon until late Sunday evening. And we all had a great time. I am thrilled the kids still want to get together and hang out as friends.

In their teen years planning family activities and trips was a real challenge. Not as much as lack of interest as busy schedules with sports etc.

 

[mesha]

Can I get some thoughts from those of you with older children?
when do they decide they don’t want to hang with mom and dad anymore?
my reason for asking is that I have 12 year old girls. We are talking about maybe buying a newer camper trailer.. but if they are going to abandon us in a few years or so, maybe we will wait and get something more suited to less children.

Buy the camper and spend time with your kids in it. You will never regret a making a memory. You won’t miss the money in a few years, but you will miss your kids. Even if they love to hand around you life gets really busy and you won’t see them as much.

 

[jeeper]

Thanks for all the thoughts guys. I should clarify that we do already have a camper, and gets used a lot. We were just trying to decide if a newer camper was worth the additional cost, especially if the kids are going to be little poo-poo’s in the future. Maybe we will go look at some newer trailers.

 

[J-mobzz]

These guys have never shown much interest in winter sports. But starting 7th grade I’m guessing they heard kids at school talking about snowboarding and came home last November asking if they could snowboard. We didn’t even go home first we just went and got them set up with gear. With schedules and everything the 3 of us only made it up 7 times this season and hope to sneak a few more days like today in but I’m super proud of how far they have come. It’s been a lot of fun and I can’t wait until I’m trying to keep up with them.

 

[rholbrook]

Can I get some thoughts from those of you with older children?
when do they decide they don’t want to hang with mom and dad anymore?
my reason for asking is that I have 12 year old girls. We are talking about maybe buying a newer camper trailer.. but if they are going to abandon us in a few years or so, maybe we will wait and get something more suited to less children.

Buy a boat. Bar none, there is not a better family activity than boating. My kids would give up breathing to go boating. We would go twice a week, my kids would take turns inviting friends. We would grab pizza or chicken on the way up. You get to know the friends your kids hang out with when you are squeezed into a 24x8 area. We still have these kids drop by to say high even though we don’t have any kids at home any more. Put the money in a boat

 

[J-mobzz]

Dude, weren’t your boys just like 4 not too long ago 😂 #wherehaveibeen

I know time slips so fast. That’s why we all do what we can to enjoy it with the kids while we can.