What is " i cant be bothered" mean

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Another question for you all - my son (age12) sorry he just had his birthday ooops - often says "cant be bothered" my thoughts are its either too hard for him to think about, he feels it is too tackling for him, or simply he cant be bothered. What are other peoples thoughts on this.

It means they don't care or they're too busy to care. They just don't want to think about it.


I had to ask my bf what it meant before I typed out the definition to make sure I knew correctly what it meant, obviously I didn't.

Think about it this way, he's 12, it's ment to be this nice day when you get him new things and treat him, and then you want to fill his personal space with visiors for a party, or take him to a loud social activies , let him chill for a day keep it small

By saying he "can't be bothered," it seems to me like he just doesn't want to do whatever you're trying to get him to do.

Some tasks I would rather not bother with because the effort is just too much, and I tend to describe this is 'I cannot be bothered doing X', but in fact I do do X, I just avoid doing it more than I have to and often do it less than I should.

Other times it really means that I am not intending to do something because the result is worth less than the effort of doing it.

It's an apathetic pre-teen thing to say. It doesn't mean that he thinks something is too hard to do but that he doesn't want to do something, because he cares little about it and will rather do something else.

"I can't be bothered"

"Wait"
"Not now ... maybe later"
"I'm too upset right now"
"I've too much going on right now"
"I've bigger things to deal with right now"
"No"
"Go away"
"Stop bothering me"
"It's not my job"
"Take your trivial matters elsewhere"

It's Brit-speak for, "I don't feel like it."

To me it means "I'm not into it(interested in it) therefore couldn't do as well as I know I should, so I won't waste my time and effort on it."