Sometimes we go for a couple of nights on a mini-vacation (Duluth is about 2.5 hours away for us, and a fun place to visit for us). One recent trip home we went to an art museum a few hours away and made a day of it – eating out, museum, and scenic drive.
Eat in or out, play board games, watch movies, talk, drink, watch favorite sports teams either on TV or in person.
Where we live isn’t very interesting to my kids so alot of what we do revolves around home. They live in much more interesting places, so we do more activities with them in their cities.
I wish they would visit this week. I would enlist them to rake leaves. 
Since both D’s are here in town we do l lot of things together. Most Fridays I meet my older D for lunch and shopping. We have dinner at our house or out with the girls at least once a week, we go to the movies, hiking, the gym together. My H and I feel very fortunate that the girls love to spend time with us!
We mostly dine in or out, spend time just hanging out around the house and some time with extended family because our kids are very close to their cousins. D still has lots of friends in HI, so she gets together with them too.
Our family loves Black Jack!
My two older kids live here in town, so I see them pretty regularly. But it’s not often that both of them are free at the same time, so THOSE days are very special. They join us for dinner,we all talk and hang out, then usually they’ll spend time with their “little” sister (almost 16!) and play board games or watch some show on Netflix. Occasionally they’ll get out Cards Against Humanity and laugh like crazy, but not too often.
My older D works nights and weekends, so we don’t often get to shop together, but we have a great time when we do. My son and I usually talk-he likes to tell me about his newest project or whatever he is fixing up lately.
Their dad lives in another state and when he visits they go on mini vacations to the islands and kayak, hike, etc. In the winter they go skiing if they can all get time off. He’ll be visiting in another couple of weeks, and I was so touched that they insisted on being there for their sister’s big Sweet 16 bash and inviting their dad. I’m glad he and I are now on good enough terms that he accepted.
Eat drink talk for sure. With S’12, who lives here, play pool, have a beer, see live music (often live music he is part of, sometimes not), camping. With D’12 who is away at school, hike, take the dog out, maybe shop, brunch.
They have tons of friends here so they do spend a fair bit of time with them. Sometimes we meet up in other cities where members of our family live or vacation, so it depends. In Oregon we hiked constantly, in Michigan we went to the beach, in NYC we do a lot of museums, theater, walking around, etc.
I try to make their favorite foods, including breakfasts and dinners, we usually go out to their favorite restaurants, one goes to gym and hikes with me. About the only game we’ve played for the last couple of years is Cards Against Humanity, when we have agood sized group. Sometimes movies. I have 2 boys, one who doesn’t believe in small talk. My stepdaughter will talk all day, and shares much more with us.
DH and I retired and moved across the state from the town that our two sons were born and raised in.
They don’t come often and we’re not in a city with lots of things to do when they are here. We mostly sit around and talk, go out on our boat if the weather is nice, walk around our neighborhood, eat! Neither of them are married.
D1 has a nice apartment nearby now, so she’ll have me over for dinner sometimes. She and I get together for meals a lot, and we go to ballet sometimes.
We are good when the kids visit us but struggle when we go to visit them. Both live in small apartments that frankly aren’t that clean but that’s ok.
We are going to visit them next week. Will only be at S’s for a day but longer at D’s. We have one day planned but another open. D’s apartment is small and dark and not that inviting. She lives in the same town she went to college in so we’ve seen most of the local attractions. H doesn’t like to shop or eat at expensive restaurants. At home, we just let him be but when we are at her house we struggle. D and H had a period of time where they had a falling out so D is very conscious of doing what he wants to do. But the problem is that he doesn’t know what to do!
Any suggestions? We don’t want to do anything too physical because the next day will be busy.
What did you used to do at home? D lives in Europe so of course we like to see things, but last time and the next (we will be in Paris with her for the month of Nov) we will stay at an Airbnb apartment and we are planning at least one day where she and I will cook while H watches sports on TV. Kind of a typical Sunday at home during the fall. (It would give you an excuse to show her how to properly clean the kitchen b-( ) We all look forward to this sort of thing in particular.
BTW, when I say “watching sports on TV” ----- that really means “sleeping on the couch”.
I see my son about once a week, unless he’s particularly busy (although we talk on the phone almost every day). Sometimes we just meet for dinner up here or in midtown, but what do we do when he stays over with me? Talk about anything and everything. Watch things together on the computer. Go out to eat. Go to museums (we’re probably going tomorrow or Sunday to a members’ preview of the new Middle Kingdom exhibition at the Met). When we have time, doing things like driving up to the Hudson Valley, or driving west to the Delaware Water Gap, to explore interesting towns and scenery and small museums/historic houses and second-hand bookstores. That kind of thing.
When my daughters are home, I try to not schedule much. The only thing I typically make an effort to plan is an outing to see my mom and my sister, who each live reasonably near (in state, but in different cities). Depending on the weather, we’ll go to the dog park once or twice; my dog is a “flight risk” so I only go to the dog park when I have a companion or two, to make it easier to keep track of the dog. We watch TV; neither of my daughters has a TV and there are some shows they can’t get online. When I visited my older daughter at her previous home (she’s in the process of moving cross-country), we went to the zoo. It was expensive but I love zoos and this one is nation and world famous, so it was totally worth it.
My daughter and I like to go “recreational grocery shopping.” We have some large gourmet-type grocery stores nearby, and there is always something new to buy and try.
Well, we are in the situation of having three sons, one married, two with very important significant others and they all live near enough that we can all be together occasionally for dinner and a nice visit. We linger over dinner most of the time and that is very nice. Now that it’s fall, the men like to have football on. But I was thinking I should suggest cards or a game once in a while.
Tell me about Cards Against Humanity. I am under the impression it is very risque? I wouldn’t want to embarrass anyone.
We’ve done 3-generation vacations: grandparents, parents, teenage kids. A particularly memorable trip was the one to Thailand and then Cambodia to see the Angkor temples. In Bangkok, besides stomping thru the tourist sites, we did group foot massages together.
I think unless your kid has a house (with multiple bedrooms), it is probably better to stay at a hotel when you are visiting. We all need our space to unwind. When D2 is home, she has her own bedroom to veg out and friends to hang out with. When I visit her at school, we get together for few meals, but she doesn’t spend every minute with me.