Are some children incapable of playing by themselves? (sorry turned into an essay)

[ZombiePlanB]

Ds1, 3.5yo, hates to be by himself. He never plays in his room on his own. He is not apart from us for more than.....ooooo 5mins before coming back. Our place is small so he's always 'near' us even when in his room. He's not on another floor!

When we read books that say 'Sometimes I like to be alone' he always pipes up 'I don't being alone'. He's now bored at the park if there are no other children.

If I start playing with him in his room, then as soon as I leave him he follows after 1 minute.

Is this normal? Just personality? I work part time but DH and I have always been around lots, no travel, breakfast and dinner/bedtime together since he was born.

It's not a massive issue but just wondered if others have children like this. Can we do anything to encourage self directed play? I worry being unable to entertain himself will be bad in the long run.

I just bought 'playful parenting' book thinking this might help.

My ds is 3.4 and exactly the same. I try to tell myself it's cos I am so fabulous he wants to be around me all the time . He follows the teacher around a lot at nursery school aswell though so I think he just needs a lot of input. Very tiring though. Today I found myself saying 'can you go write on your black board while I clean in here and in 2 minutes mummy will come see if she can guess hat you've drawn' He eventually went, only to return 30 seconds later saying 'come mummy, lok, I've drawn a heart for you cos I love you' ahhhhh, can't really complain!

I would say first step play by himself whilst you are in sight but busy- more reassuring.

Think some are more suited to playing by themselves than others but a lot of it is habit.

Mine is one that doesn't!

Drives me crazy - thank goodness for the break when he goes to nursery.