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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect my nearly 9 year old to entertain himself

28 replies

barney11 · 19/08/2019 10:03

My almost 9yr old DS has always been very reliant on company and having entertainment provided for him. He's quite high maintenance and gets bored easily. When he gets bored he'll moan constantly and pick fights with his sibling. As such, weekends and school holidays can be hard work! We do lots of things outside of the home, play dates, Cubs, day trips, sports clubs etc and I have a mountain of books, games, toys, crafts etc in the home but he ALWAYS relies on me to do things with him. AIBU to expect a nearly 9 year old to entertain themselves for an hour here and there throughout the day? He refuses to read and has grown out of toys (other than a bit of Lego play) so the only time I get to do jobs around the house or help younger siblings is if I put him in front of a screen, which I don't want to do all the time! He also struggles to sleep at night so i don't even get evenings to myself to achieve anything in peace. I've tried just leaving him to get bored to see if he'll magically discover something he wants to do, but no luck. How do your children keep themselves occupied?

OP posts:
bettyjune07 · 19/08/2019 15:10

I have one like this as well, mine are twins. Alot of the time the other is happy to do things as a duo but sometimes she'll want to do her own thing, and her sister does not know how to cope.

Like you we are fairly busy, have toys, lego, colouring books, writing pads, a huge selection of age appropriate books but she just can't entertain herself. Causes a lot of rows between them as sometimes DT1 just wants some time alone to do her own thing!

Notcool1984 · 19/08/2019 16:06

My son, 9, is the exact same! His little sister can sit for hours playing, drawing etc but he needs me constantly, it can be draining! We may look back on this fondly when they are teenagers and want nothing to do with us though 😀

LadyRannaldini · 19/08/2019 18:59

Our granddaughter of that age is quite happy to amuse herself for hours, she needs access to lots of drawing and writing paper, her books, her ipad sometimes and the kitchen TV. We have lots of our children's 70's Fisher Price toys and she loves those.

I honestly think that if you are constantly having to amuse him he'll never learn independence and that boredom is something we all have to deal with.

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