Or is it just mine? How much time for unstructured play do yours have and how old are they?
And how old are your kids?
Apologies for the length of this post. Feel free to skip over my own personal situation to the voting options at the bottom of the post.
DD is just six and I just don't know understand how she can have so little time for unstructured play?
I know, it's my own fault but I don't know what to do about it. It's mostly a problem on week day evenings but the weekends pass too quickly as well.
DD comes home at 4pm 2 days a week and at 5pm 2 days a week. One evening she has swimming after school so gets back only shortly before 6. she spends about 30min washing her hands, removing her outer clothes, messing around with her little brother and just generally unwinding. She takes about an hour for dinner (she's severely underweight and probably has arfid so I try not to rush her too much). After dinner she used to watch TV or be on her kindle for 30min but more and more there isn't time for that. Sometimes she reads for a bit. Sometimes she reads her school book, which might be another 15min. Before we know it, it's time to go upstairs to go to bed. She's usually in bed by 8-8.15 and asleep by 8.30. she could do with more sleep though as she struggles to wake up in the morning. Another problem is that she's very slow and dreamy. A lot of time is spent doing routine stuff (like going to toilet, dressing, etc) because she won't focus on the task but talks non stop or dreams away. I am diagnosed with ADHD and sometimes I wonder if she has ADHD as well.
There is no time to play except for a bit of this and that. There is no time for school work either but she's doing well in school so I'm not worried about that. She's taking lessons to play an instrument but never practises at home and I don't feel like asking her to practise when she already has so little time.
Is this normal? When I was in school (not in the UK) I finished school at 1pm or 2pm and had the whole afternoon to do whatever I wanted. Twice a week I did an extracurricular activity but there was still tons of time to play every day or go to my friends' houses. I know though that even if her school finished earlier she'd still have to go to wrap around care (and she does anyway) as both dh and me work. As it is I still can't finish my work during the day and often need to do another hour at night after the kids have gone to bed.
On weekends she spends one morning doing a sport but then we often go out in the afternoon and on Sunday. Usually somewhere kids friendly like the park or playground but again before we know it it's time for bed.
There is just so little time for unstructured play and I feel terrible about it but I don't know what to Do. She has to go to school and I can't work less.
I'm posting in aibu as I'd like to see the poll results but if anyone has any ideas that would help us I'd love to hear about it.
Yabu - my kids have plenty of time for free play (and this includes those that think a couple of hours in the evening is enough and those that somehow have more time. If you are in the latter category please tell me how).
Yanbu - my kids don't have enough time for free play either.
Thanks for your opinions.