11 Fun Things to Do with Your Teenager to Keep ’Em off TikTok

Written by

Weekend Team

Published on:

July 9, 2026

min read

Table of Contents

The fun things to do with your teenager that actually work at my house stay low-pressure, a bit messy, and built for both of us instead of some forced “bonding” session.

When I frame the night like a relaxed friend hang with games, snacks, and one goofy shared activity, my teen drops the attitude and actually has fun.

11 fun things to do with your teenager at home: At a glance

Fire up Weekend for a low‑effort, high‑payoff night
Turn your kitchen into a “Chopped”‑style snack challenge
Start a joint “watch and roast” series
Run a Karaoke Sing-Off that they secretly take too seriously
Build something ridiculous in the living room
Make art you actually hang up
Host a full game show party
Do a late‑night walk-and-talk with a tiny mission
Try a “Nailed It” bake challenge at home
Plan a mini at‑home photo shoot and meme it
Create a shared “someday” list and pick one small thing

1. Fire up Weekend for a low‑effort, high‑payoff night

The Weekend Games app is my move on nights when my teenager complains they’re bored but shoots down every idea I float. I open the app, say “Jeopardy! loser does dishes,” and suddenly they’re interested.

How I do it:

Kick off with Jeopardy! so we get fast wins and losses. They dominate modern stuff; I quietly rack up points on older trivia.
Switch to Wit's End once we’re warmed up, so we go from “who knows more” to “what kind of story can we build together.”
Log our Jeopardy! scores in my notes app and bring them up later in the week so the competition lives on outside the game.

For a little window of time, we stop being “parent vs. teen” and become 2 players taking the game way too seriously in the best way.

2. Turn your kitchen into a “Chopped”‑style snack challenge

“Help me cook dinner” gets me an eye roll. “You have 20 minutes to make the best snack out of whatever we have” gets my teen off the couch. Putting a timer on it flips the whole mood.

Here’s what works well:

Toss a handful of required ingredients on the counter and let each of you fill in the rest
Use an actual timer so it feels like a real challenge, not a vague suggestion
Do a dramatic taste test and give each other ridiculous judge feedback
Snap photos of the results and give the winning dish an overconfident name

The food doesn’t have to be gourmet. The point is standing shoulder to shoulder, messing around, and ending up with something you both want to eat.

3. Start a joint “watch and roast” series

Watching TV in the same room is easy. Watching a specific show together and treating it like your weekly debrief is different. We pick a series, promise not to watch it without the other person, and allow interruptions whenever someone needs to yell at the screen.

You can lean on:

Letting your teenager pitch the show so they feel some ownership
Pausing shamelessly to predict what happens next, roast characters, or compare it to real life
Keeping a running list of quotes or scenes you’ll reference later in texts
Treating that show like an appointment, not a “maybe if we’re free”

Talking about fictional people’s choices somehow makes it easier to sneak in real conversations without triggering their defenses.

4. Run a Karaoke Sing-Off that they secretly take too seriously

Karaoke at home sounded like my teen’s personal nightmare until we tried it once “as a joke.” Now they pretend to hesitate and then start curating a setlist like a stage manager.

What keeps it fun:

Using Karaoke on Roku so we stop arguing over lyrics and just sing
Dropping Song Quiz rounds between performances and letting the winner assign the next song to someone else
Starting with group songs so nobody has to go first alone
Handing my teen the job of creating categories and silly awards at the end

There’s always a moment where they forget to be self-conscious, commit to some ridiculous high note, and we both end up laughing too hard to finish the song.

5. Build something ridiculous in the living room

My younger kids love these kinds of toddler activities. Teens act “too old” for blanket forts until they see you building one that actually looks comfortable.

I’ve dragged chairs into the middle of the room, tossed a sheet over them, and announced, “I’m making the fort childhood me deserved.” They always wander over with “improvements.”

What helps:

Treating the build like a real project: Pillows, lights, snacks, maybe a fan if it gets stuffy
Letting them dictate the layout so it feels like theirs too
Bringing a speaker and giving them DJ rights while you set things up
Using the finished fort for one episode, a few rounds of a game, or just quiet scrolling time in the same space

Changing the room’s shape, even just for one night, shifts the atmosphere in a way that makes talking feel less awkward.

6. Make art you actually hang up

“Let’s do a craft” sounds like punishment to most teenagers. Buying a couple of canvases and saying “let’s each make something we’d actually hang” lands a lot better.

Focus on:

Choosing a loose prompt like “album cover,” “favorite lyric,” or “inside joke”
Putting on music and agreeing not to show each other anything until you’re done
Framing or hanging the results somewhere visible, even if it’s just in a hallway
Taking a photo of yourselves holding the finished pieces like you survived an art show together

You’re not trying to raise a professional artist in one night. You’re showing them that what they make on a random evening matters enough to stay on the wall.

7. Host a full game show party

Calling it a “game show party” instead of “game night” feels dramatic, but my teen responds to the word “party” way more than “family.” Weekend does the heavy lifting because Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune live right next to each other.

What the night looks like:

Opening with Wheel of Fortune so everyone can shout letters and solve puzzles together without much setup.
Switching to Jeopardy! once we’re warmed up, so the questions get faster and the stakes feel higher.
Keeping score on a scrap of paper and crowning a “house champion” with an actual perk like choosing the next movie.
Snapping a “contestant photo” at the start and a victory shot at the end.

Framing it like a 3‑round event makes your teen treat it like something to show up for, not a fallback because nobody made other plans.

8. Do a late‑night walk-and-talk with a tiny mission

Face‑to‑face conversations can feel intense with a teenager. Side‑by‑side, looking at something else, works weirdly well. We started doing short night walks with silly missions and the talking followed.

How I go about it:

Picking an easy goal: Rate porch decorations, count cats in windows, choose the best front yard
Leaving phones in pockets unless we see something worth photographing
Asking 1 or 2 questions when they bring up school or friends, then backing off and returning to the mission
Keeping the loop short so it feels like a breather, not an obligation

It doesn’t have to spiral into a deep heart‑to‑heart every time. Consistency matters more than intensity here.

9. Try a “Nailed It” bake challenge at home

Baking with teens gets a lot less stressful when you both admit up front that the result will probably look awful. We pick a ridiculous dessert photo online, set a timer, and see who comes closest with whatever ingredients we already have.

Make this work by:

Choosing something visually absurd but structurally simple (cake, cupcakes, cookies)
Capturing smug “before” photos and brutally honest “after” photos
Letting friends or family vote on the winner in a group chat
Eating the evidence together, no matter how cursed it looks

You’re modeling that trying and failing together is way more fun than watching from the doorway with “helpful” criticism.

10. Plan a mini at‑home photo shoot and meme it

If your teen spends half their life taking pictures anyway, you might as well join in for one night. We pick a theme like fake album covers, bad prom photos, or paparazzi shots of a celebrity at the supermarket and turn a corner of the house into a “set.”

My method:

Let them style at least one outfit for you and one for themselves
Take a bunch of exaggerated shots like fake candid, paparazzi chase, awkward school photo
Use a simple editing app to turn the best ones into memes, posters, or fake magazine covers
Save the funniest edits in a shared album so they surface as memories later

Your teen gets proof you’re willing to look ridiculous too, which buys you more goodwill than another speech about “being yourself.”

11. Create a shared “someday” list and pick one small thing

Talking about “we should do more together” tends to die in the same conversation. Sitting down with snacks and saying “let’s make a list of stuff we actually want to try at some point” lands differently.

What helps:

Making it clear all ideas count: Games to try, shows to watch, recipes, places, skills
Writing everything down in one place, digital or paper, without judging or editing
Marking the ideas that excite both of you, not just one
Choosing one tiny, at‑home thing you can do this week, like testing Wit's End, trying a specific recipe, or watching the pilot of a show on the list

The list becomes your cheat sheet for the next time you ask, “What should we do?” and get nothing but shrugs back.

Make every teen night in easier with Weekend

Fun things to do with your teenager get a lot easier when you don’t have to build every game from scratch. Weekend hands you multiple familiar titles in one place so you can go from “I’m bored” to “okay, one more round” in about 30 seconds.

Here’s what tends to land the best with my teen:

Jeopardy! turns random facts into a scoreboard your family never stops talking about. One night of “I knew that!” lasts all week in the group chat.
Song Quiz takes clips from across decades and makes you race each other to name the song and artist, which means both their era and yours get to win.
Wit's End drops you into a fantasy story together so your teenager’s wild ideas actually change what happens next instead of just bouncing off a screen.
Wheel of Fortune puts everybody on puzzle duty and creates those “how did you solve that with three letters?” moments you keep replaying.
Sketchy AF puts your teen's fast thinking on display, since the earlier they call the doodle, the bigger the bragging rights.
Spot On makes geography a game your teen actually wants to win, one pin drop at a time.
Karaoke (on Roku) pulls the lyrics up for you, so the only thing left to argue about is who had the best performance, not which song to pick.
20 Questions (on Roku) lets your kid flex their deduction skills against a very smug digital riddlemaster, which they take way more personally than they admit.

Weekend runs on Roku, Fire TV, Samsung, and LG, comes with a 7‑day free trial, and covers enough genres that even a skeptical teenager eventually finds “their” game.

FAQs

How can I use Weekend for quick fun things to do with my teenager?

You can use Weekend for quick fun things to do with your teenager by loading Jeopardy!, Song Quiz, Wit's End, or Wheel of Fortune when you both land on the couch. I usually start with Jeopardy! for a fast showdown, then switch to Wit's End if we still want to hang out.

Which Weekend games work best if my teen gets bored easily?

Weekend games that work best if your teen gets bored easily include Song Quiz for quick clips, Jeopardy! for short clues, and Wheel of Fortune for rapid puzzles. I’ve seen short, high-energy rounds hook my teen long enough that they forget they were “too tired” to play.

Can Weekend help us mix tech time with low-tech activities?

Weekend can help you mix tech time with low-tech activities by acting as the “main event” between offline stuff like snack challenges and DIY projects. I’ll open Jeopardy! or Wheel of Fortune for 20 minutes, then slide straight into a “Chopped” snack round or photo session while we’re already laughing.

Which Weekend games are best for shy or reserved teens?

The best Weekend games for shy or reserved teens include Wit's End for shared storytelling, 20 Questions for quieter guessing, and team-based Jeopardy! so they never stand alone. My teen loosens up fastest when we start co-op, then they decide if they want the spotlight later in Karaoke or Song Quiz.

How do I get the Weekend Games app on my smart TV?

To get the Weekend Games app on your smart TV, open the TV’s app store, search “Weekend” or “Weekend Games,” and install it. I keep Weekend pinned near the top of my apps so Jeopardy!, Song Quiz, Wit's End, Wheel of Fortune, Karaoke, and 20 Questions are always one click away.