When does the fun stuff stop

That's definitely the norm with the people who have pre-teens that I know.

No one seems to want to give you any meaningful answers, OP. I don't have older children, but my sister has two older girls. She often said around 12/13 was when they largely started to lose interest in doing much with her, instead preferring to spend time in their room alone or with their friends. I also found at that time they stopped wanted to spend time doing as much 'fun stuff' with their smaller cousins (my kids).

When I was 42 I went on a city break to Istanbul with my (widowed) dad for his 71st. It was great! Plenty of ice creams and Turkish delight, maybe fewer playgrounds though.

How depressing if it had to stop! It doesn't. You just need to change the activities to make them age-appropriate. You might not get big whoops of cheer if you try to take your 14 year old Pippa Pig's world, but you can easily replace it with another outing 😂

It's only tricky when you have a big age gap between kids, and you can't really please everyone.

Not only it doesn't stop after 5, but it gets better and better, easier too as they become more independent, more adult and more on your level (you being an adult).

I much prefer mine as a teen! Under 10 was so hard, having to go boring places and sit through kid films. Now he’s older we can go to the theatre, see better films, he’s actually engaged in things at a museum/aquarium/zoo, we can have good conversations…

I also really love the fact he goes out/is happy in his room and I get time to myself!

Well my 15 year old doesn't want to hang out with me much but when he does we watch a film or go for a coffee which is fun to me! He also loves cars so we sometimes go to the local race track and I can have a wine there. I hated running around the park and soft play so I prefer this age honestly.

I'm 41, my son is nearly 18, we still do days out, lots of heavy metal music concerts and a 4 day music festival in summer. My mum even comes with us to daya out, concerts and festivals!

Not sure it's that normal. Not among DD's friends anyway.

i think i've read the post wrong ignore me 😂 sorry

why would u want ur child to just sit in their room and do nothing? Why have kids at all if you can't be arsed to engage with them? what a shitty post

I just read some more posts. I think my 12 and 15 yos are different. Dd1 loves hanging out with me and when her friends couldn’t agree on a cinema date said she’d rather see barbie with me anyway. Dtds are 12 and mostly up for anything including soggy dog walks and board games. They’re all super excited about Halloween 🎃

Mine is 26 and gas never stopped the fun stuff.

It changes but I love teens. We’ve had a fabulous holiday in Orlando and can take dc to Thorpe park, paddle boarding, country walks with a pub stop. Lots of fun.

Teen/pre-teen.

Its been the hardest transition for me, as my child went from being a very easy, happy and fun and up for anything child, to someone who was self conscious, not want to do much and rather just spend all day in their room.

It is normal though and they grow out of it.
I’m using this time to try and appreciate having more free time and not being so exhausted 😄

I think it depends on the child. And I also think some kids grow away from family during a rebellious teen phase before reconnecting as an adult.

Dds are 10 14 and still up for anything they can still fit on/in. Thankfully soft play came to a natural end during covid and obviously they can't go bounding on to a bouncy castle with toddlers or attested singing time at the library but there is always fun to be had. Gets better when it's bigger stuff you can join in too imo

We don’t do so many of the things you described, we try to live our lifestyle, but with our children. Eg I like walking so I walked with my kids to the park yesterday. We like cycling so we’ll do a bike ride and have a picnic on the way. We like visiting nearby villages and our kids like painting so we visited a nearby paint festival recently where there was a kids painting workshop. Don’t put your life on hold - bring your kids into it.

Just to add, I do actually enjoy my child! We have lots of fun playing Lego and games at home, lovely chats on the walk to school. We’re definitely in a stage where outings and trips outside of the house are way more stressful than they’re worth and just not enjoyable. I’m hoping this passes soon.

5 is a lovely age. they still think you’re great and a font of all knowledge and wisdom.
Every age is a different phase but different elements or definitions of fun.

My eldest is 5 and none of those things are fun at all.

Cinema - we tried this at 4.5 and they were bored and playing up within 30mins and we had to leave.

Zoos - normally massive, they start whinging after a few hours as they’re tired from walking and want to be carried.

Bouncy castles - they usually get accidentally body slammed by a kid twice their size and it ends in tears.

Ice cream - they drop it (again, tears), don’t eat it quickly enough so it melts all over their hands and clothes, it ends up binned or I have to eat it.

playgrounds - not quite big enough to be let loose to play by themselves, still requires a lot of hovering on the adult’s part to avoid falling off an 8 foot climbing frame and cracking their head open. Also, mind-numbingly boring.

Am I doing it wrong?! I find all of these things stressful. I can’t wait for the days when they can do all of these things without such an extreme level of hands-on attention, and can get through films and day trips without getting bored, having tantrums and playing up.

I get a lot of eye rolls and closed doors from my 11 year old but if I tempt her out with the right things (Starbucks, cinema, shopping) I get a more enthusiastic response. The fun returns when we're on holiday too!

All very wholesome and mine will do all that stuff, on holiday ! But not at home.

generally the easy fun stops at 11. Where you say ‘shall we do c’? And they say YES

after 11 more bribes are required

Eldest is almost 11 and loves time in his room gaming with friends but equally loves going out with us for activities - cinema, crazy golf etc but also dog walks and alatte in Costa.

I still have fun with my parents and I'm in my thirties!