...to not be one of those mums who sits & plays, cooks, does crafts etc., with kids?

[ScouseBird8364]

I tend to get bouts of guilt over this.

I rarely sit down with boys (6 & 3), and do artsy crafty type things, and I wonder if I'm failing as a parent in some way by not doing so?

Serious thread, how involved are you in this respect with your little ones?

It is easy to feel guilty about this when you see everyone's FB life being so perfect. There is more to being a good mum than art and craft as others have said that is what school is for. I also believe that children should not be entertained all the time and should learn to make there own fun. My only concern would be too much tv computer games at this age.

I was not into arts and crafts. I now work in a school and really enjoy doing it with the children, and have a pang of guilt. but then I remember how knackered I was, how few ideas I had, and how I read to them, talked to them, took them to stare at endless building sites, played board games.

We all have our strengths. If something isn't natural to you, you may well not enjoy doing it.

I think that sharing , talking and listening and laughing are really important.

I do loads of crafty stuff with my children, we sew, do messy play, make our own play-doh, have mountains of salt-dough creatures and we'd be buried under an avalanche of pictures if I wasn't ruthless about chucking some out.
BUT, I have bouts of guilt about it too. Because I love doing this sort of stuff, but find playing lego interminably boring, I feel like I'm pushing them to do what I want to do! Fortunately they are all quite craftily inclined anyway.
The one thing we don't do much of which I'd like to do more is cooking - i make cakes for a living so they are never allowed to help when I'm doing that, and it's usually the last thing i want to do with them. But baking and cooking with my mum is what started me off, so it'd be a shame if that doesn't get passed on.

I agree with Saucy.

My parents barely did anything with us as kids nor let us do anything like baking in case it "made a mess" and it's stuck with me for years.

Used to love going to the girl next doors house when we could build forts and bake cakes - never wanted to leave!

Home Bargains had the Cinderella and Rapunzel Play doh sets for £1.99 amazon link as not online

Doh wrong thread, please ignore me.

We can be all things to our kids because there are things we aren't good at or don't like.

Concentrate on what you can do and get others into your little ones lives to fill in the bits you're missing.

Let's face it, nobody feels guilty because they need to take the kids to the doctor or dentist or hairdresser because we can't do that for them!

*'cant' be all things, not 'can'

I hardly ever do craft. DS is 3.5 and not really into it and his younger sister would just make a mess. We do baking sometimes, as he enjoys that, but it's hard with a little one (18mo) around as well. I feel I have failed at my taking delight in making something out of toilet roll tubes test.

My youngest is 7. He loves colouring in and making books but likes to work independently. We tend to sit together and I'll knit or crochet while he colours and cuts out. He wasn't interested in paper and pencils until he started nursery but I would sit for hours making lego towers and helping him with jigsaws.

He does like to bake but mostly does this with his big sisters. They'll make cakes or biscuits at least once a week during the holidays. They are pretty good about not making too much mess - but they clean up and wash up anyway.

We do bake together when we make Christmas stuff. His friend joined us last year and the kitchen was covered in icing sugar and edible glitter. They had a whale of a time.