Do I do too much with my DD, aged 4.5?

[jenrose29]

I met up with a friend today who has a child a few weeks older than my DD. She commented on how he gets up at 7.30am, goes to nursery for a couple of hours, goes home, watches TV, has a nap, plays and then is in bed for 6.30pm. I left wondering if I do too much with my DD, or if indeed she is hyperactive! As an example - in one day, she'll get up at 7am, play until she walks the 1.5 miles to nursery school, 3 hours there, hour in the park, 1.5 mile walk home, 3 hours swimming, have tea then take the dog for a walk for an hour before having lots of bedtime stories and being in bed for around 8.30/9pm. Even today, in school holidays, she was up at 6.30am, she played and painted until 8.30am then we went to a soft play area where we played for 4 hours, followed by the park for 2 hours, a bike ride for 1.5 hours, swimming for a couple of hours and then playing outside after tea. She went to bed at 8.45pm but could easily have stayed up for hours more. She never ever gets tired or grumpy and always has bags of energy but after listening to friends I feel like maybe she does too much...?

All I can say is, they are all different.

Your DD sounds like my DD and your friend's DS sounds like my DS! Children can be very different and have very different levels of energy. As long as you and your DD are happy and she doesn't seem overtired, then don't worry about it.

she must be quite fit by the sounds of things. If you don't see her flagging and she is not grumpy, it must be ok for her.

Bloody hell - if you can bottle some of her energy I'll buy some!! That is not normal! They are all different and there's nothing wrong with what you/she are/is doing - but fecking hell, I'm glad she's yours I'd be on my knees with her

Mind you - if your name is your age, then you have a (good) decade on me

I think it is fine if she is happy like you say and not getting grumpy or tired.

My DD 3.7 is also very active/loves to be on the go, but once I got pregnant and didn't always feel like 2x park/outings etc everyday, she has learned to become more content playing at home and making her own fun - which suits me and will help when DC2 arrives. We still do lots, just not that constant 'out of the house' amusement which you are doing.

As long as you are happy to provide this level of entertainment, then good on you both - but it does sound slightly exhausting.

I would ask when do you get time for yourself? If I had taken DD for four hours at soft play or three hours at swimming (!), then after that I would go home for quiet time and expect her to amuse herself for a bit while you relaxed and had a cup of tea/read a book. I doubt she really needed another two hours running around a park, followed by bike ride/more swimming. You will wear yourself out at this rate!

Doitnicelyplease I'm 32 weeks pregnant and we're still doing the same amount as before I was pregnant. I do feel tired at night, but then I think I'd feel tired during the day too if I wasn't busy. If it's a rainy day, DD is content to play at home/read/paint etc but her energy levels are through the roof by the evening, she is like a caged animal! I'm studying for a degree so once DD is in bed I work on that so no, not much time to myself but I don't mind. In September she will be at school so I want to make the most of her now before the baby comes along.

My ds3 is a bit like this. He has a lot of energy. Luckily I also have 2 teenagers so we "work" shifts [busmile]

When you say swimming for a couple of hours, is she actually swimming, or just playing in and around the pool? To be honest none of the rest of it would be out of the ordinary for my girl, but more than an hours swimming would finish her off. (not to mention me)

My kids sound like yours OP, they need constantly stimulating and I find the holidays so hard as they need to be busy doing something all day as they get bored so easily. They both enjoy books but don't really play with toys and my biggest gripe is they will not watch tv!!! We go to the park twice a day and walk and cycle everywhere and they never are never grumpy when busy but when sitting at home they get so bored. They are always knackered by bedtime tho and are both zonked by 7pm, I then get an evening child free!!! They are all different but these energy fuelled kids do seem more rare than the DVD watching children. To be honest I think alot of parents take the easy optionand stick a DVD on for their kids rather than take them out and entertain them. We can go months without the TV on and I do wish sometimes that they would sit for example Shrek was on yesterday and Toy story today but they are not interested, they are both dressed and ready to go out somewhere. When it stops raining we will spend the morning in the park!!! However my friend up the road will be spending the day watching DVDS with her kids and 10 mins in the park and her kids are bored. I think it depends what they are used to!!!!!!!!!!!1

I Feel faint just reading that op :o As long as you are both happy, that's all that matters.

My ds 4 is like this, completely inexhaustible so in my experience it's pretty normal.