To ask when children get fun

[mangobongo]

NC for this one!

Anywho, Just wondering when children become fun to take out. My 9 month old has a solid like 4 hours in a day where I can take her out and she'll be both well behaved and presentable,those hours are usually spent shopping and/or "doing coffee" with other mums or "retired parent visiting" with the odd swimming lesson thrown in. I can't wait to take her trampolining and horse riding and theme parks etc etc when do they get to the right age for that?

At the moment I love my time with her but I'm ready to go back to work because the day to day stuff is getting a bit fucking tedious to be honest!! Don't get me started on baby classes.... yawn!

Spose I should be thankful she's too young for the shudder soft play hellholes for now! So lighthearted AIBU to think babies are boring??

DC1 is 4 and suddenly getting noticeably easier. Fun to be around, can do stuff, does not need constant minding and attention. A pleasure really.

But if you wait with second until first is in school, consider that you won't be enjoying the activities with the reasonable 4-5 year old. You will be again taking care of baby and toddler. I'd say as soon as possible, get it over with.

Mine is 3 in a few months and he has just reached the really enjoyable stage!

I’ve started to enjoy my kids a bit more since 18months. Obviously we can’t do those activities yet, but they chat away and can communicate basic things which is nice (and funny)

Yeah 18months things got easier.

2yrs When potty trained even easier.

3 years old, potty trained and talking it was fun.

4 years old, talking, laughing making jokes, awesome.

But it definitely helps if you don't have a second one arrive to do all the stressful stuff again.

That's why I love having one, he is amazing to hang out with, such great company, happy all the time, it's like being with a cocker spaniel

I found it all interesting- never boring, though there were tiring times and stressful things like illness. Every time I though that ' treasure this, this is the golden period ' it all changed and the next stage was different but wonderful in its own way.

At 2 or just before you can have days out that aren't fun for you individually but it's lovely seeing your dc enjoy themselves like a petting farm or theme parks with little toddler sized rides.

Mine are 4 and 2 and I'm desperate to go to Disney. I also agree the smaller the age gap the better if you're not massively keen on babies, even with 2y I resented dd2 for being harder work and not being able to talk!

So much good info and advice thank you! Glad I'm not the only one that just wants to get through this phase. I long for autumnal walks through the forest and going to the park to not just push a pram around it !

Oh and the 'when to have a second' debate is up for discussion when DH gets home!

They get a lot more fun from when they can talk but are still bloody hard work in the toddler stage.

From 5 my twins have been genuinely fun, I love just hanging out with them and we laugh a lot. It's also so much more civilised when they can reliably sit through a meal / cinema / activity like bowling without throwing a tantrum about something. They're seven now and it's the best age yet.

You're kidding yourself op. My youngest is just shy of 8 months and loves soft play!

He's only been because I took the older two but don't underestimate how long some big foam shapes and a ball pit will keep them interested 😂

I hated the baby stage children are much more interesting once they start talking and you can interact with them properly. I’d say around 2 is the turning point. I never had a second because I hated the baby stage so much, we briefly wondered if we should try to adopt a young child (2-3yo) so that DD would have a sibling but that’s a rubbish and selfish reason to adopt a child so we didn’t.

Best thing about tiny kids is you get to view the world through their eyes. So something like a farm place is brilliant because you get to see them laughing at a chicken or a donkey. Really simple stuff made magical because they are little and it's all new.

Once your dc starts walking you open another world. They will want to walk everywhere and now you will take 2 hours to walk the five minutes to the local shop because they stop and pick up absolutely fucking everything off the pavement. They stand an examine everything they find, a leaf is a thing of absolute fascination etc.

And of course, once they start walking you can go for a toddle round the park and look at ducks and new flowers and all sorts of interesting things.

Primary school age - love my boys. Have chats, go do activities together (where I can be a big kid).

I've loved every stage while also finding each one like a circle of hell. DS is 5 and it's brilliant - we have great conversations, do fun stuff, watching him learn is amazing. He also drives me completely crazy, one or the other of us shouts/cries/grumps at least once a day.

We intended to have #2 when he was 2 but I am finally 28wks pregnant after 3 years of very tough times. I worry a lot about the stuff people have written on here. The good side though is that he totally gets about the baby, sings to it, can't wait to meet it and hopefully will be able to babysit in about 10 years!

For me they start getting fun around 2. DD2 will be 2 in a couple of weeks and going out is starting to become enjoyable. She still won’t sit anywhere for more than a couple of minutes but as long as we are on the move she really enjoys everything and finds pretty much everything fascinating!

DD1 is 12 now and I’ve loved every stage since about 2.5. From 2.5-3 their attention span is a lot better, tantrums are minimal and they are just a pleasure to hang out with (most of the time)

Our DD was 3 when she started riding, 5 for gymnastics and the trampoline park. Local ish theme park geared for littlies from three also.

My DD is just 3 and my mum takes her riding each week. The staff do comment that she is unusually confident around the horses so it depends on the child as to when a good age to start regularly would be (forgive the boast).
She dropped naps about 22 months and everything felt easier then as we weren't so tied to stopping at a certain time or pushing a sleeping child round in a buggy who was then going to wake up grumpy.
I am expecting DC2 in April and dreading the bloody 'routine' already.

Seriously have words with your DH about his planned age gap.

You are stretching out the dull bit for as long as possible, they will be at different developmental stages so have less in common and so less playing together. When planning holidays or anything interesting you will always have one that is too young to appreciate what the older one wants to do and so on.

One parent will always be stuck doing the boring thing with the youngest while the other Daddy is off doing the more fun stuff.

@MsJuniper congratulations we took a few years to conceive DD so under no illusion that we will conceive number 2 with the planned age gap so we'll see how life goes! Don't worry too much about the age gap thing though, it couldn't be helped and just enjoy your new baby when the time comes

So once they're potty trained and dropped naps then we're good to go basically! Look forward to it and the free nursery hours

Thank you - enjoy your baby and remember once they're walking that will add a whole load of new stuff too