115 Awesome Mother And Teenage Son Activities

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Take your mother teenage son relationship to the next level with this ultimate list of activities to help you spend quality one on one time doing something he will actually want to do.

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Teenagers are so much fun to hang out with! Sure they can be a tad moody at times but as a mom of all boys I’ve learned three key things about them…

If you keep them fed, active and getting enough sleep, you’re pretty much good to go.

I have finally come to the realization after nearly 17 years of raising boys that I will never EVER be able to have enough food in the house to fill them, and it’s a complete waste of energy to worry about all kinds of sports balls flying through the house all the time.

Also, never try to start a conversation with a teenager (or your husband for that matter 😂) if he didn’t get enough sleep the night before or if he’s hungry.

Keep your teens personality in mind when looking through this giant list of mother teenage son activities and find something that you both would have fun doing. Some things will be free and others will require a little bit of budgeting but I hope you find new fun ideas to try.

115 Mother and Teenage Son Activities

1. Watch Home Movies

It’s always so fun to look back to when he was a little boy.

2. Go Car Shopping

If he’s close to driving age take him window shopping for a car, or take him to an exotic car show. Both my teenage boys started talking about what cars they wanted way before they were actually able to drive.

3. Go on a hike

4. Checkout colleges together

This is a great idea for getting him to think and talk about his plans and ambitions after high school and setting goals to achieve them.

5. Go fishing

6. Make homemade ice cream together

There’s a ton of recipes on pinterest for homemade ice cream. This is a favorite one at our house, and it’s actually good for you too!

7. Play corn hole

8. Go on a bike ride

9. Have a nerf gun fight

10. Play board games

Some of our favorite board games are the sceneit games, Monopoly, Catan

11. Spend a night in a nice hotel just for fun

12. Play remote control cars

These little cars go up to thirty miles an hour, they’re a blast even for me to play with!

13. Have nightly family devotions

Set aside 10-20 minutes every night or as many nights as you can and teach him from God’s word. Talk about the important things he is dealing with right now, school, peer pressure, etc. Make this a safe place for him to open up to you.

Make eye contact when he speaks, make this quality time spent building a good relationship with your teen son.

14. Take him out to eat

15. Movie night complete with snacks

16. Have a water balloon fight

17. Help him achieve a goal of his

18. Play the blind taste game

You each take turns picking out 8-10 single ingredients without the other person seeing what you picked. Then while the other person is blindfolded you feed him each ingredient one by one and they try to guess what each ingredient is. Whoever guesses the most correct ingredients wins.

You might need to set some ground rules if your son is extra mischievous. Like for example nothing too spicy (you wouldn’t want to burn your taste buds) or painful to eat.

19. Help him update and organize his bedroom

You could go to the hardware store and pick out a new paint color for his room, and then go home and paint it together. Rearrange his furniture, buy him a cool new poster if he likes having things on his walls. Take time to look through all his clothes and donate what doesn’t fit or what he doesn’t like to wear anymore.

20. Go watch a professional sporting event

21. Do yearly birthday Interviews

A favorite tradition of ours has been to film an interview of them on their birthdays, where I ask them things like what do they want to be when they grow up, who their best friend is, what’s a favorite thing about their lives right now, what was the highlight of this year, etc.

The whole family enjoys watching those videos back every few years. It’s fun to watch how much they have grown and changed, their likes and dislikes.

22. Go play miniature golf

23. Teach him a new skill

24. Let HIM teach you something

25. Take him on a driving lesson

26. Go to an amusement park

If your heart health permits 😅 ride whatever crazy ride they want to go on.

27. Work out together

28. Teach him how to play poker

And don’t forget to teach him the importance of being able to keep a good “poker face”. No smiling when you get a good hand, or slapping the table when you get dealt a bad one! Lol 🤣

29. Go ice blocking

Buy the big ice blocks at the grocery store, and head out to the best grassy hill you can find. Climb to the top and sit on the block of ice (just make sure you put a towel on the ice block so your tush doesn’t freeze!) and slide all the way down the hill. It is seriously sooo much fun!

30. Stay up all night with him

This is a tough one for me, i’m already short on sleep because of a little one that still wakes up at night. But teenagers are night owls. I find I have the best conversations with my sons late at night.

31. Take him on a mini shopping spree

32. Bake his favorite dessert together

33. Go out for breakfast

You will never go wrong as long as there is food involved!

34. Run a 5k with him

35. Start a Youtube channel together

36. Pray together

I wrote a blog post about praying scripture over your teenager, go ahead and use that if you need a little help getting started.

37. Help him with his homework

38. Ask him what he thinks about current world events

39. Play spike ball

40. Shop for and put together mana bags

Mana bags are gallon size ziplock bags we fill with a water bottle, a pair of socks, granola bars, chapstick, gum, beef jerky or other small snacks. We carry a few filled bags in our car to hand out to homeless people we see on the street when we go about our errands.

This is a great activity to do around the holidays as well.

41. Teach him to slow dance

42. Attend a concert together

43. Take him to the grocery store and let him get whatever he wants

Food, food, food!!

44. Teach him to budget his money

45. Let him plan a road trip

46. Go swimming

47. Fly a kite

48. Build an obstacle course in the backyard

49. Go to a trampoline park

50. Play video games with him

Let him teach you how to play one of his favorite video games.

51. Build a fire and make s’mores

52. Plan an “Amazing Race” game in your town

53. Take him to a comedy club

Teenagers love a good joke. Just make sure it’s an age appropriate comedy club where teens are allowed, you can usually find one in a big city.

54. Go on a picnic

55. Play bible trivia

56. Help him search and apply for jobs

Mother and Teenage Son Bonding Activities

57. Play hookie together

Did you ever sluff school when you were in high school? Remember how fun that was? Take him out of school early or better yet skip school and work for the day and go just hang out.

58. Have a staring contest

59. Head out to the lake or beach for the day

60. Go on a camping trip

Or pitch the tent in the back yard for a couple of nights, it will be just as fun.

61. Feed ducks at the park

62. Create a bucket list

63. Find cool waterfalls in your area

64. Go zip-lining

65. Play headbanz act up

66. Attend high school events

67. Go bowling

68. Race to see who can finish household chores first

Teen boys or really any age boys thrive on competition, so this might be a great way of getting him to willingly do his share of the chores around the house. It also helps if there’s a prize for the winner.

69. Go-kart racing

70. Volunteer together

Volunteering ideas: Habitat for humanity, food bank, animal shelter, or even just picking up trash in your neighborhood.

You could also teach him to cook a healthy meal and then go bless a family with the meal he just cooked.

71. Go to the aquarium

72. Play truth or dare

This should be an interesting one! Just make sure you set limits before the game begins.

73. Take him out on special dates

Dress up and take him out to a very nice restaurant. Teach him proper etiquette while you’re there. He won’t mind because again, you’re feeding him.

74. Play frisbee

75. Go to the planetarium

76. Take him to the shooting range

77. Let your teen create a music playlist for you

78. Rent a jet-ski for a few hours

79. Take him to your highschool

Tell him all about your crazy high school years. Share with him some of your funnest moments and regrets. I’m sure there will be lots of things you two will have in common.

80. Learn a new game together

81. Have an outdoor movie night

82. Go out for milkshakes

83. Play jenga

84. Do laundry together

If he already does his own laundry then he will appreciate the help, if he doesn’t yet do his own laundry now is a good time to teach him. His future wife will thank you!

85. Play night games

If you don’t know what night games are don’t worry your son will fill you in, but you basically just play games like tag or basketball with a glow in the dark ball. You usually need a few people to play, so either get the whole family involved or maybe invite some of your teens friends to come over for game night.

86. Target practice with bb guns

Set up a row of aluminum cans or filled water bottles in the back yard and do a little target practice.

87. Throw a football in the backyard

88. Do a puzzle together

89. Play Twister

90. Do random acts of kindness together

91. Go for a walk around the neighborhood

92. Best paper airplane contest

Build your own paper airplanes and then see who’s can fly the farthest.

93. Make an IG reel together

If you do this one I would LOVE for you to tag me on social media @keeper.of.our.home so I can see it!

94. Play a game of h-o-r-s-e

95. Indoor rock climbing

96. Play Tennis

Your local park most likely has tennis courts. Even if neither of you have ever played, get a couple of cheap tennis rackets (check thrift stores) and a pack of tennis balls. You’ll both have fun and get an arm workout out of it.

97. Teach your teenage son how to invest

This is a great real world skill to learn at this age, and there’s so many resources for parents these days to make it easy to teach kids about the stock market and how it can grow their savings.

Check out the Dave Ramsey website for a lot of free information, and when you’re ready to jump in to help your son learn how to invest, Greenlight has an easy app that walks you and your teen through it. You can both download the app on your phones to keep tabs on his money. The app does cost $7.98/month but it’s worth checking it out.

98. Help him wash and clean out his car

99. Take him to an old school arcade

100. Look through his baby book

101. Have him help you in the garden

After all, what boy doesn’t love to play in the dirt!?

102. Actually go on the road trip he planned (see #45)

103. Brainstorm the next family vacation destination and activities

104. Help him plan the next school dance date

105. Fly a remote control helicopter or drone

106. Have a lazy day

Just spending time together lounging around can be fun.

107. Turn anything you can think of into a competition

Who can jumprope the longest? Who has the funniest jokes?

108. Make old school soda floats

109. Go to a paint night

110. Teach him how to make a cup of coffee

111. Really listen to him

Sometimes you have to learn to read between the lines with teens. Pay attention to what your teen says and doesn’t say.

As tough as this might be, try not to react in a negative way or make a big deal when he tells you things you don’t necessarily approve of. Just listen.

Make a mental note of things he said and you would like to speak to him about later, but in the moment just listen.

112. Visit a Petting zoo

If you don’t have a petting zoo near you, visit an animal shelter and give a little love to the animals that need it most.

113. Make family meals a priority

As your kids grow into young adults their schedule becomes so hectic with sports, school activities, jobs, and hanging out with friends that it can become increasingly difficult to have regular weeknight dinner together.

I encourage you to keep family dinner at the table a priority in your home. Often times it will be the only nourishing food they will have all day, and it’s a time when the whole family can check in with each other and talk about their day.

114. Go on a helicopter ride

How fun would it be to go on a helicopter ride?! We have never done this one because it’s not within budget right now, but maybe one day!

115. Enter a competition together

Pie eating contest anyone?

Final Thoughts On Mother and Teenage Son Activities

I hope you found some new mother teenage son activities to try! My biggest piece of advise, and I’m talking to myself here too! is to just enjoy the teenage years and create as many special times with your son as you can. Time goes so fast once they start high school.

What other fun things have you tried with your teenage son?