To stop entertaining my kids?

Omg are you my sister?

I don't really understand why most parents create conditions where this is inevitable

25 little activities a day every day of every holiday"oh Hugo LOVED the five science festival events, he actually went to sessions for children TWO YEARS OLDER but the organisers didn't care because he's SO MATURE"

Like fine but do you not want a life of your own sometimes

Honestly when I stopped trying to entertain them my life got exponentially better. My kids are 6, 5 and almost 2 and when I got pregnant with my 3ed I kind of gave up on “entertaining” the other two. Give them a cardboard box and some paint and shove them in the garden. Bit of chalk sometimes. Today I put the sprinkler on and they were out for ages. My mum had 6 of us and she said she stopped trying to do all the “entertaining” after 3/4 (brother and sister are twins). Idk why but her telling me that made me feel much better and less guilty because I had a wonderful childhood.

How have you coped until tween/teen? Even at 5yo mine were expected to do some independent play. You must have then patience of a saint.

What usually works for me is offering the choice of tidying up their rooms, a chore or finding something to do or, if they are being particularly difficult about it I'll choose something and say "how about a puzzle? It's boring? Put it in the charity pile then and run the hoover around." Suddenly they'll decide it's fun ornmake themselves scarce.

We have this problem and it has been exacerbated by DD broken her wrist! She can't do many of her favourite activities like crafts or practicing her musical instrument.

She's had more screen time than I usually allow at half term, seems to make the problem worse though as soon as the screens are off.

"Only boring people get bored"...my Dm response every time I moaned about being bored....

This is what my DM would do if I said I was bored. Or even if I didn't say but looked suspiciously like I might be loading about with nothing to occupy me. There was always something to dust or brass or shoes to be polished. I became pretty good at entertaining myself!

TBF my DD was also very good at entertaining herself from quite an early age. I put it down to being an only child.

I had my dc in the 1990s, I didn’t entertain them, they went out to play, had friends over.

if you are constantly entertaining your children, how can they develop friendships and learn to entertain themselves?

Say It’s okay to be bored.” or “Yeah, me too.” Basically don’t solve the problem for them by listing all the things they could do or setting something up if you already took them out.

They need to know it’s normal, not expect you to be the entertainer and to figure out how to use up time themselves. If they keep it up start responding by giving them a chore to do,

like you - I go out in the morning till about 1/2 then home and it’s chill time. I started young that my DD had options either play with her toys by herself or help me do washing/ garden therefore she’s pretty good at playing by herself for a while.

Give them options either read or play or they can help you do x around the house

I think kids being bored is really important they need to learn to be creative and problem solve on their own

Find them something to do. DS mentioned having nothing to do today so he hoovered the stairs. Other DS had more sense and found himself something to do after last week he ended up watering the garden after saying the word bored. Have a list on the fridge for being bored, clear out the hot press, wash and Hoover the car, bit of gardening.

Yes, this is it.

this is the answer, but it is easier said than done.

My kids are awful for wanting entertained. And they do make a beeline for devices as soon as they have a spare moment. I say no but they can’t help themselves and it gets to the point I have to then hide remotes etc.

Mine also have lots of toys, big garden and outside toys, but they moan that they are bored. And they do just need to be left to be bored then they will come up with something.

The issue is that what they come up with often involved a huge amount of mess (den building, obstacle courses on stairs etc), or requires input from me because they are still quite young…and then they move onto the next thing and leave me to clear it all up.

They also tend to fight at the drop of a hat and I just hate all the screeching and crying.

So yes, it is very hard.

I do so much with my kids, far more than my parents ever did with me, and I do feel like it has come back to bite me on the arse.

Went to a national trust place today, didn’t have time to organise a picnic (due to the kids playing up) so bought an overpriced lunch on site…back home and complaining they were bored within minutes.

I do need to just ignore them and leave them to be bored. I know I do. Otherwise they are going to turn into very discontented adults. Their expectations about everything are just too high. And it’s not just them, it’s a whole generation. Everyday has to be an “event”. And it’s not sustainable.

I'll often be quite blunt with mine, find something to do, read a book, no it's not time for screens. You have to brazen it out if they kick off, most of the time they'll find something to do pretty quickly. I've always had the expectation that they are capable of occupying themselves for some of the time like I did as a child and luckily they are good at it.

Ah I hear you. I think we’re a victim of our own success. We’ve created curious fun people that are always looking for stuff to do. my son is much better than my daughter at finding stuff to do BUT he always gets fomo so will want to be involved in any social event. It’s not forever!

Me too. My parents did absolutely nothing with me but I drove my children everywhere.