What mundane things entertain your children?

Awww lovely update. Congrats on dc2. 🩷

This thread is so lovely I had to resurrect it! ♥️

My dc, ages 4 & 2 can endlessly entertain themselves with the household recycling. 🤦‍♀️
To clarify, I mean empty milk cartons, egg cartons and boxes of all sizes. They will even fight over these things if one of them appears to be enjoying playing with something too much. 🤷‍♀️

@Cheeseycheeseycheesecheese Feel like updating? 🙂

My DS when he was about 18 months used to rub a big rubber against furniture till there were lots of little rubbings then use one of those soft baby hairbrushes to sweep them onto the floor. He was obsessed! DH and I used to be forever shouting “where’s the rubber and brush” at each other as he’d leave them places then need them again!

A little older he used to spend hours sellotaping plastic wallet folders (the ones you put in lever arch files) to the coffee table.

Latest thing (he’s 6 now) is sewing scraps of material together to make pencil cases.

Watching the window cleaner from inside the house.

These are very sweet!

My DS2 loves the 'spice game'. Involves standing on the kitchen counter and smelling all the different spices. He will happily play that for as long as he is allowed.

My middle child at age 2 used to love flushing things down the loo. We were best friends with Dynorod for a while. Same child is now 7 and occupies himself digging holes in the garden. Deep ones. I hope he's not planning on burying us!

Mine have both been quite different. Child no.1 loved taken stuff out of cupboards, books of shelves etc. She has always been quite messy and creative with her play. Child no.2 is less destructive and likes things quite precise and ordered. She’ll spend ages taking out wet wipes one by one and cleaning things . She is quite happy just sat on a chair watching things.

Both seem to like washing things.

Mine all loved the salad spinner. They spun it on its own, put small toys into it, did it fast, slow, all sorts of medium.

I used to let them cut up coupon inserts from Sunday newspapers and leaflets from supermarkets. It occupied them for hours. Sometimes they found useful coupons for me.

A ball, a £1 lightweight football from the supermarket. He's 19 months and in his opinion this is the very best thing he has ever owned. He spends ages throwing it then going to get it all the while shouting "ball!". Very cute.

My 7 year old likes picking up dog poo!

The Argos catalogue! Hours and hours of peace.....

My work kit bag used to provide my children with hours of entertainment. High jackets in yellow and orange. Same for salopettes. Hard hat. Safety glasses. Work boots. Work gloves. Safety specs.

Pressing microwave buttons, turning on the fan, watching the bin men, climbing stairs (as long as he's not holding mummy's hand!), every time the car pulls off from a stop (vroom vroom!).

@HumbugWhale thank you ds has a play Mobil bin lorry so will do your idea using that!

4 year old ds like dropping stones, leaves, daisies, blades of grass into water. Ideally a stream but in not then a bucket in the garden will do. His twin sister will spend hours sorting the button tin by colour.

@sadeyedladyofthelowlandsea Ah that’s lovely. They give me the creeps but DS is fascinated with them

Toy cars. DS and his cousin were obsessed with them, and happily my mum had kept a Cadbury's Rose tin full of them from when my siblings & I were little. The boys spent HOURS every day lining them up on one side of the room, driving them over one by one to the other side, and then back again. That was literally it. That was all they did. It was great

Woodlice - he brought 2 into the kitchen the other day and said he had two new pets

To add, we have a large ride on tractor and trailer in the garden, does my 5 yr old ever ride it? Nope. But bought a car washing set from Tesco and oh my, the hours he’s spent washing it all, getting all the bits out of the case and meticulously putting them back again. Every time it rains/gets grubby/or cobwebs on, he can’t wait for the weekend as he has to “clean the tractor” said with a tut and shake of his head
My 3 year old has a small foam ball which he tries to throw over our large shed and retrieve from the other side.. Probably manages it 1 in every 200 throws, but it keeps him entertained for sometimes two hours at a time! I fully admire his perseverance and I get to have a cup of tea in the garden in peace

Ds 3yo: Washing the car.

Looking for worms in the front garden.

Loading the dishwasher with extreme ineptitude.

Counting every single house number on the way to preschool. Preschool is no 286 FML.

Smushing all the playdough together to "make a thunderstorm".

Traffic jams. Any more than 2 cars stopped at a junction constitutes a traffic jam. These need to be appraised loudly with lots of comments on each car, its licence plate, the people driving it, whether he likes the colour etc.

And DD1 6yo playing elaborate imaginative games using random inanimate objects instead of dolls. Also drawing road systems with chalk on the patio.

DD1 3yo wearing sunglasses. At all times. Upside down.