Families that don't do anything with children

My kids are just reeeeeaaaly chill. They'd have zero problem staying home all day pottering. Do they like to go out and do stuff too? Sure but they actively ASK to not go anywhere quite a lot!

They're 6 and 3

Mine does too. She’d played a football match this morning (plays for local academy) and was out with friends this afternoon, but still wanted me to take her out this evening.

By 12 mine were going to the park on their own with friends.

They can’t be bothered, plain and simple! There are hundreds of free summer activities to go at if you can be bothered to look. I know, because I’ve tried most of them in our city. Some more simple, some more high brow. There is a lot there for the taking but you can’t make people want it or be interested in it!

How old are they? My teens/tweens still like to get out for exercise/to burn energy. I’ve just spent 2 hours at the park playing football with 12 year old DD because she wanted someone to practise her penalties against!

Yes I do.

I have kids round lots in the summer, I set up activities and involve them or they play together in the garden or indoors if the weather's bad. I make up plates of snacks and make sure they have drinks. DH sometimes takes boardgames to one of the neighbours and teaches the kids to play because they don't know any games. I've offered to take them to activities that are on in the local area. I volunteer with Rainbows and did Brownies for years before DD was born.

I don't remember going out loads with my parents as a kid. Weekends were mostly about shopping, chores and seeing extended family. And spending hours and hours playing out on my bike or roller skates or playing video games. Certainly on high days and holidays we we'ren't sat indoors, but we weren't out much in the main school holidays as my parents were both working.

I'd go to an aunty's and play with my younger cousins or to my grandparents, where I'd find some kids to hang out with and play out, read, do some drawing, watch TV. I'd certainly get bored and the holidays seemed like forever, but I think a bit of boredom is a good thing. As an only child I was very good at entertaining myself, but DDs were also pretty good at entertaining themselves and IMO that unstructured time where they use their imagination, if anything is slightly more important than day trips and structured activity.

THE most accurate response that could have been posted

Not always the case though is it. You sound about as judgemental as the OP

I do genuinely think a lot of it is laziness. There will be genuine cases of money issues or adult/child illness or additional needs which complicate things and arent who I'm talking about, but I do think people just make excuses, theres already so many on this thread
-we dont have money for ice cream/food/gift shops the kids might want.... then bring it with you and say no to extras (ie be the adult)
-im exhausted after working all week.... get over it that's just life with children
-MH etc.... again you're a parent you need to push through and not pass your issues on to children

I think people make excuses for one reason or another and then convince themselves theres no solution because it's a bit easier in the short term but the truth is you do need to invest in spending quality time with your children and expanding their experiences as much as possible, also do parents not enjoy doing this things with their children?

Fair. I can’t imaging mine stopping being physically active, they both seem to need it more than most. But equally, who knows what’s round the corner I suppose!

Both husband and I work full time, yes we take the kids out, I have a weekday off and we protect that to do school holiday meet ups with friends and days out, I work a weekend day and husband takes them to parks or museums because he enjoys that more than play places while I'll take them trampolining and softplay as well as parks because I don't get as overstimulated as he does and I like to meet up with other mum friends. I'm also way more likely to go to cinema with them than he is but he's more likely to take them for a random bike ride.

I usually take my children out every day. This year their behaviour has been terrible. Every day trip or trip to the park that I've planned has been cancelled because of poor behaviour. I'm not taking out such badly behaved children. I'm sure they won't tell their friends they had all plans cancelled because they acted up so much. Im sure they will just say they 'chilled'. You never know what is going on in the background.

Because yours are younger they need to burn energy. My older children don't want to go the park or a walk.

Poverty will likely pay a huge part in it, especially if you don't have things local to get to. Bikes cost money, as does public transport to parks and libraries.

Struggling with children with SEN and/or other disabilities who may be easier at home or simply not able to cope in public areas could be a big reason too.

i don't like taking my out because they argue ! It's embarrassing and stressful. Id rather they see friends seperate. When they were younger In used to love going for a walk in the woods but it was a long time ago.

Because some people just don’t make very good parents. Thats about the long and short of it sometimes:

I personally don't see the issue with this, unless they're annoying people.

For those that do stay at home how do you do it? What do you do all day?

I also want to know this. I think it’s more impressive not throwing money at the problem (even if it’s just the cost of a bus fair) and being able to regularly stay at home all day. My 5 year old can now manage an afternoon at home entertaining himself if he has been out in the morning, but in many ways it’s more costly as he likes things like Lego. While we get a lot second hand it’s not free, that’s for sure. My 2 year old really needs to be exercised twice a day or he is feral. Keeping him at home for an afternoon so my 5 year old can play has me counting down the seconds from about 3pm…

We do a lot with our dc while working full time so it's hard work. I think it must be very tough for shift workers and non flexible contracts.

My parents didn't do much with us though and I have plenty of memories of summer. Mainly exploring places on my own or stretching the boundaries of where I could go without being found out! I really feel for the current generation of children (including my own) that everything has to be so facilitated.

I frequently invite other parent friends to join us for days out, mine are 4 and 7 and I'm 42 but many parents aren't up for it. My eldest is neurodivergent (not overly comfortable with this term but still on pathways and a bit complex) so has stopped a lot of activities through anxiety of late. Still does swimming and gymnastics and we go to parks, trampoline parks and softplay most weekends. Museums are a bit of a nightmare for him, gets overstimulated. Loves the cinema. It is expensive taking them out and eldest takes a lot of managing. 4 yr old is largely mellow but loves a class, does gymnastics and ballet and about to start musical theatre classes, all at her insistence. I do think most parents are responding to their child's needs when they make these decisions though as some kids do wells scheduled up to the eyeballs and some kids need a lot of down time. Some needs lots of classes like my youngest and some need safe walls to bounce off like my eldest. I imagine some need lots of quiet time at home reading and drawing etc

And you still haven’t addressed the physical and mental health, transport/location, ability, and other issues posters have raised.

Or, answered the question of your interaction and understanding of ‘these families’.

Fair comment. Hopefully that is what OP meant.

Can’t you do both? We go out, and they have time to stay at home and be creative/use their imaginations. There are quite a lot of hours in a day!

My stepdaughter did way more, in fact it was around 10-12 hrs of activities weekly from Y1 onwards and I did worry it was too much.

Guess what, she still does most of them, is happy, confident, healthy and active, heading for great GCSE grades and has big plans for her future.

So you keep your kids at home if you like (and pretend they are "getting bored and building creativity" rather than zoning out on a screen) but I'll let mine do what makes her happy.