One to one time is important for parents and children to develop their relationship. While it might be easy to find father and son activities, it can be harder to think of mother and son activities. This post includes some great suggestions for mother and son bonding including ideas for mother and son dates, creative activities, things that get the adrenalin pumping and new experiences to share. At the end of the post you’ll find specific suggestions for mother and son activities by age group to help you pick the right thing for you and your son.
If you’re looking to bond with other members of your family, check out this post on Family Bonding Activities.
Mother and Son Bonding by Having a Shared Experience
These mother and son bonding ideas are all about doing something together and sharing the experience.
Cook Together
Whether you’re a great cook or don’t usually venture into the kitchen, cooking together can be a great experience as long as you don’t take it too seriously. I’d suggested browsing online or in recipe books to find a dish you’d both like to cook and then giving it a go.
Try a New Food Together
While we’re on the subject of eating, how about trying a new food together? You could do this by visiting a restaurant that serves a cuisine you’ve never experienced, for example, Indian food, Vietnamese food or even sushi. You could also go food shopping together and choose a range of new foods to sample at home.
Do a Sponsored Something Together
Raising money for a good cause is a great act of kindness and is great for bonding. It works best if you can find a shared interest that you could then be sponsored to do, perhaps a sport or hobby, or if you do something a bit silly, like shave off your hair or sit in a bath of beans.
Do a Puzzle Together
Doing a puzzle is a nice way to work on something together. You can choose a level of difficulty that’s appropriate for your son’s age. If you have a tween or teen son whose not that keen on talking they may be more willing to open up while focussing on the puzzle as they feel less pressure to talk.
Look at Old Photographs Together
We love looking at old photographs as a family but it’s something that would also be lovely to do one to one with your son. You can include photos of both yourself when you were younger and of your son. You can also look at other mementos like videos, baby boxes and books.
Listen to an Audiobook Together
While reading is usually a solitary activity, you can make it a shared experience by listening to an audiobook together. You can listen at home (perhaps as part of a hygge activity) but it’s also a great mother and son bonding activity for on a long car journey.
Go on a Mother and Son Date
Date nights aren’t just for the parents! A mother and son date is a lovely way to spend time together, below are some great mother and son date ideas.
Go to the Cinema
The cinema is a great date location for mothers and sons. You can have the shared experience of watching a film together as well as enjoying the snacks and talking about the movie afterwards.
Go Out to Dinner
If your son is still quite young, they will love the grown up feeling of going to a nice restaurant with you. You can also make it a shared experience by trying a new restaurant for the first time.
Go Skating
Both ice skating and Roller skating make great dates. Whether you can skate and your son can’t, your son can skate but you can’t or if neither if you can skate, you’ll find attempting to hold each other up great, if slightly exhausting fun.
Go to the Zoo
If both you and your son like animals, the zoo can be a great mother and son date idea. If you really want to splash out then you can add an interactive animal or zoo keeper experience which will make it really special.
Visit a Museum or Art Gallery
Depending on what you’re both interested in, museums or galleries can make a great mother son date. You could visit somewhere local or travel to a big city depending what’s available in your area. Don’t be put off museums if your son is young and energetic, many are really interactive experiences.
Watch a Sport Together
If there is a sport that one or both of you are interested in, then you could go and watch it for your date. Football games, ice hockey, cricket and tennis all work well.
Mother and Son Bonding Activities to Get to Know Each Other
These activities are all about sharing more about yourself and how you feel about the other person.
Choose an Outfit for Each Other
Just because they are boys, it doesn’t mean they have no opinions about clothes and just because you’re a mother, it doesn’t mean you don’t have a sense of style! Raiding each other’s wardrobes and putting together outfits for each other is a cheap, fun activity. You can even do a fashion show for the rest of the family.
Share Your Hobby
If you love history, tell your son about your favourite historical figures. If your son loves YouTube, let him show you his favourite You Tubers. You may start off thinking the other person’s interests will be really dull for you, but seeing someone’s passion for something can be inspiring, even if it’s not your cup of tea.
Teach Each Other Something
Taking the idea above a step further, why not teach each other something you’re good at. If you’re into crochet, give your son a demonstration and then let him have a go. If he’s a great golfer, let him show you how it’s done. This a lovely way of appreciating each other’s skills and abilities.
Choose a Book or Film for the Other Person
Recommending something you think someone will love is super satisfying. I was over the moon when my son started reading post apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, I pretty much dumped my entire book case in his room! If you aren’t great readers then you can recommend films instead and either watch them together or alone and then discuss them.
Ask Each Other Some Mother and Son Bonding Questions
One of the simplest ways to bond is to get to know each other better and you can do that with these mother and bonding questions.
- What did/do you want to be when you grow up?
- Who is your hero?
- Who is your best friend?
- What is your favourite Film?
- What was your favourite family trip?
- What would you do if you won a million?
- What celebrity would you invite to dinner?
Physical Mother and Son Activities
These physical activities for mothers and sons are great for energetic sons, although they might push less energetic mothers a bit!
Have a Nerf Gun Fight
Tweens and under will love the opportunity to shoot you with nerf bullets. You can do this inside or outside, at home or go big and do it at a local park. Make sure you wear goggles to protect your eyes.
Have a Water Gun or Water Balloon Fight
If you’re really brave, swap nerf guns for water guns or water balloons. If the weather is good then a water fight is a great mother and son activity although if you have other kids, they may well be a bit jealous!
Go Climbing or Do a High Ropes Course
For bonding with slightly older kids, activities that involve a degree of risk are a great choice. Experiencing a bit of fear together is great for bonding and if one of you is more scared than the other it’s a great opportunity to show support.
Do Some Sport Together
You could do a new sport together or something you’ve tried before. Some suggestions are:
- Tennis
- Golf
- Cycling
- Hiking
- Football
- Badminton
Mother and Son Bonding Through Creativity
These suggestions are good for mothers and sons who are already creative but also fun for people who’d like to be more creative as they don’t require any particular talent.
Write a Story Together
You can write a fun story together by taking turns to write parts of it. Depending on the age of your son, you can write a sentence, a paragraph or a page each before switching over. The most fun is often had when you try and make the story as silly as possible.
Build Something from Lego
You could either use a lego set and follow the instructions to create the intended outcome or you could try and build something else together like a house to even just a really tall tower. If your son is younger then you could use lego Duplo or plain wooden building blocks.
Grow Something
This is a mother and son activity that you’d do over a period of time rather than on one day. You could make it as simple as a few herbs or as elaborate as redesigning a whole garden.
Build a Website
If you’re keen for your son to learn some tech skills you could have a go at building a website or an app together. If you already have the skills, you could teach them, if not, you can learn to do it together.
Learn a Craft Together
Learning a craft together combines the bonding benefits of learning something together, having a new experience and getting creative. Below are some crafts you could learn:
- Pottery
- Glass painting
- Felting
- Knitting
- Crochet
- Dying and printing
- Candle making
- Origami
- Wood burning
- Wood carving
- Mosaics
Mother and Son Bonding Activities by Age
Below are some summaries of the most appropriate mother and son bonding activities based on the age of your son.
Mother and Son Activities for the under 4s
While the under 4s won’t be able to do a lot of the things on the list, below are some mother and son bonding ideas that are ideally suited to the the early years.
- Cook together
- Go to the zoo
- Choose an outfit for each other
- Have a water fight
- Do some sport together
- Build something from blocks
- Grow something together
You could also get some more ideas rom this post about Hands on Activities for 4 year olds and this post on Places to Take a One Year Old.
Mother and Son Bonding for 4-8 Year Olds
4-8 year olds adore one to one attention and will love both the ideas above for under 4s and these bonding ideas.
- Try a new food together
- Look at old photos together
- Go out to dinner
- Share your hobbies
- Have a nerf gun fight
- Write a story together
Bonding with 8-12 Year Olds
While tween boys aren’t always that keen to spend time with their parents, these ideas are likely to tempt them away from their screens.
- Do a sponsored something together
- Go to a museum or art gallery
- Teach each other something
- Visit a climbing wall/high ropes course
- Build a website together
- learn a craft
Mother and Teen son Bonding Ideas
Teenagers often find it difficult to open up to their parents but by doing the activities below you’ll give them a chance to talk without too much pressure.
- Try a new food together
- Go ice or roller skating
- Watch a sport together
- Choose a book or film for each other
- Do some sport together
- Build a website together
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