101 legal and free things for bored teenagers to do

[Thomzo]

Some people seem to be suggesting that it was OK for teenage thugs to riot as there is nothing else for them to do. So I started to think about all the things that I used to do when I was a bored teenager in a small market town where there really was nothing organised for us. Age limits may apply to some of these:

1. Walk round to a mate's place for a cuppa and a DVD.
2. Go to the library and get a book out. In the winter, go to the library, borrow a book and read it there where it's warm.
3. Volunteer in the local charity shop (free tea or coffee included)
4. Go for a walk.
5. Go for a walk and take loads of photos of the best parts of your local area on your blackberry. Then post them on facebook/twitter etc.
6. Get your gang together and organise a photo competition between you. Get the neighbouring gang to judge the winner.
7. Organise a photo competition against the neighbouring gang.
8. Volunteer as a friend of your local hospital.
9. Turf out all your tatty old clothes and turn them into a patchwork quilt (ok so you may need to borrow some sewing kit).
10. Get your gang together and go out picking up litter.
11. Volunteer with your local Wildlife Trust or BTCV.
12. Volunteer at your local animal rescue centre.
13. Contact your local college to see if there are any free courses.
14. Write letters of objection to all T35co planning applications around the country.
15. Go to church, listen to what they have to say and make your own mind up about God.
16. Enter all the free competitions you can find.
17. Pick a subject you are interested in, research it on the internet and at libraries, then apply for Mastermind.
18. Get your gang together and organise a choir. Grab free lyrics off the internet and practice in the local park, well away from sensitive ears.
19. Volunteer at the National Trust. They pay travelling expenses and sometimes provide meals.
20. Get fit, go for a run.

[Helsbells]

21. Play football,
22. Climb a tree,
23. Do some painting,
24. Do a chalk drawing on a bit of pavement,
25. Make a photo montage,
26. Use your Young persons rail card and get the train somewhere interesting (not free I know but cheap ish),
27. Go window shopping,
28. Play Frisbee,
29. Sunbathe,
30. Bake some cookies,
31. Built a tree house,
32. Help at a holiday club,
33. Play basketball,
34. Get a part time job,
35. Make up a dance routine,
36. Play in a band,
37. Walk the dog,
38. Go for a bike ride,
39. Swim in a river or lake,
40. Hang out in the park,

I did all these things in my summer holidays.

[Annpan]

41. Learn to play a musical instrument (borrow one or use an phone app)
42. Learn to mix records or write songs on garageband (for the people have computers, free programs are available)
43. Join a band
44. Start a band
45. Learn how to break-dance
46. Learn Parquore (spelling?)
47. Cook dinner and wash the dishes
48. Help a neighbour paint their house or cut their grass
49. Ask your parents if they need help around the house... and don't take no for an answer (the loft/cupboard/garage always needs tidying, the front step always needs swept)
50. Write a blog or keep a diary.

[baldybloke]

Go for long walks with the dog
Build dens
Climb trees
Ride my bicycle
Go round friends and listen to records
Read
Go to the Cinema
Go swimming
Make things
Work on the local canal
Play sport

Now where did I find the time to do all that?

[snapdragon]

? 51,
Join am-dram
52, Start an am-dram,
53, research plays
54, write plays
55, write musicals
56, make costumes
57, learn a craft/skill

[Millymollymandy]

58 (as well as doing most of the things that baldybloke did, we also used to ) Hang around inside the local laundromat complaining there is nothing to do.....

[ajs88]

14. Write letters of objection to all T35co planning applications around the country.

Just please don't object to the one in Woolwich, we the local residents are looking forward to ours being built and it would be a shame if it were stopped because someone in another part of the country didn't like the idea of it. As a disclaimer I'd like to say that Woolwich is not a pretty market town, it's an inner city high street whose local shops sell food thats mostly going off at the time of purchase.

[boboff]

59 Research pornography on the Internet!
60 learn how to speak as if you were from the East Bronx "Innit"
61 Remove the elastic from your jeans, allowing them to drop down below your anus, whilst pulling you pants up round your belly buttom
62 Turn that cap around so you look very nice
63 Cover your face with a hood and then spend time anywhere with lots of CCTV, just think of all the people you are providing with work, watching you.
64 Spend time near local places of interest and then when you see a camera crew doing a live piece to camera, stand behind them doing funny things like making rude and offensive hand gestures.
65 Offer to impregnate other local teens to ensure they move further up the social housing ladder.

[that_sarah_girl]

hmmm...whilst all the above are great suggestions, I wasn't interested in most of the above when I was a teenager (I mostly hung around T**co underage drinking and smoking ) but here's some of the legal stuff I did...

66. Skateboarding/blading
67. Go for a picnic
68. Go to some local gigs (sometimes not free, but cheap)
69. Offer to help out on the merch table at local gigs/hand out flyers for local bands (usually gets you into the show for free!)
70. Walking Mainys (aka. walking down the main road whist checking out boys and such...)

[julie_lanteri]

71. do homework
72. spend quality time with parents/grandparents
73. join one of the FREE clubs offered in school. drama, dance, sport, art, you name it, there's one. Then it leads to evening/weekend activities too.
74. take turns to have friends round. organise something to do.

[gregorach]

I wasn't interested in most of the above when I was a teenager (I mostly hung around T**co underage drinking and smoking )

Thank you for your admission of humanity! Yep, I spent a good part of my teenage years getting bladdered on cheap "cider" and smoking dope, and, to use the standard turn of phrase, "it never did me any harm".

Just a thought, but has it ever occurred to anybody that all these wonderfully condescending middle-class suggestions for what kids ought to be doing are at least partly the sort of thing they're rebelling against? You're all making me want to knock your garden gnomes over at the very least... Seriously, I keep expecting someone to suggest "Catching criminals whilst taking a bicycle tour of Dorset with four of your painfully upper-middle class friends and a dog, and being home in time for scones with clotted cream and lashings of lemonade!"

No, sorry, that's ridiculous of me... Obviously they should all be getting into late medieval chamber music and practising their topiary.

[julie_lanteri]

please Duncan, don't assume that because we don't list get drunk and stand in the street at 3 in the morning as a hobby we've got to be "condescending middle-class". Rich kids do exactly the same except they've got expensive alcohol in the cabinet, can afford class A drugs and probably don't need to stay in the street... they're teenagers. "can't be bothered" is their thing. fine, it's their choice, but they shouldn't turn round and say there's nothing for them to do. (talking about teens in general, not about what happened those last few days)

[Susie]

Thank you for your admission of humanity! Yep, I spent a good part of my teenage years getting bladdered on cheap "cider" and smoking dope, and, to use the standard turn of phrase, "it never did me any harm".

At least you got out of the house... I remember spending a lot of time sitting about thinking no-one understood me, and worrying about my acne .

[pelmetman]

My drug of choice is Germaloids ..............But don't snort it as it shrinks the brain

Dave

And just before anyone else say's it .............that properly explains why I'm not very bright

[Susie]

Well you must be brighter than me because I had to google what germaloids was ;-).