Nearly 7yo DD has no interests

[Claennister]

DD has absolutely no interest in doing anything new or different. She will draw the same picture again and again and put on the same "show" again and again, but apart from that and wanting to watch TV she is utterly without an interest in doing anything.

I have brought in all sorts of exciting things for us to do together, but she's not interested. Baking with mummy? You make it, mummy, I'll eat it. Craft? You make me a mask, I'll wear it for 5 seconds. Stamps? I'll draw you the same picture as before then add one random stamp to it. Let's go to the beach and make sandcastles - mummy, you make the sandcastles, I'll watch (and criticise). Can we leave now?

She wants to do nothing but watch TV (often putting it on then ignoring it, which makes me turn it off - TV is not a background which you can use all day long) and when I spend all my efforts and sometimes plenty of cash on an activity all I get for it is "Is it finished? Can I watch TV now?". She treats all other activities as frustrating interruptions to the TV. We have simply bucket loads of stuff for her to do, but every single one is greeted with constant groans of "Can I nearly watch TV yet?" "Is it nearly TV time?" "Is it TV time after this one yet, mummy?" I don't want to make it into even more of a reward and focal point for her. sigh

It isn't that we don't do other things, we do loads of them, it's just that she moans about them all. She is not interested in the journey, only results which lead to stopping, which lead to not having to do it any more.

Worse than that, I am a member of another mums group where it seems their children are angels day and night (unless they have been diagnosed with a learning problem of some kind, which is the only possible reason for a child to be non-angelic or not top of the class) and if I talk about TV they reassure me their children never watch it. Of course! The very middle class attitude that TV only happens to other people. Yet they are familiar with all the shows and characters...

I want to see if I can encourage her to have some interest in doing things rather than making me do them for her, but I'm all out of activities which are new - take her to an art place and she wanted to know when she could leave - "When I've drawn my picture can I go home?". Everything is something to be completed and ticked off so she can stop.

I'm so tired of it all.

Well it sounds a whole lot more complicated than my first thought, but I'll add it here anyway in case it helps:
Go camping!
No Tv, a chance to practise making friends, finding things to do, bonding with you, a chance to really talk etc
Another thing- for a child who doesnt like to get things 'wrong' drawing on a whiteboard with coloured dry wipe pens is great - they can rub out quickly and easily when they want to correct a mistake. Try an usborne book of drawing whatever. Do it on a whiteboard yourself (if you're good make mistakes), model what you're thinking and saying internally.

I agree with others though, she does sound like she needs some more assessment. Lots of luck.

OP, the first thing I thought when I read your OP is medical too.

My sons have coeliac disease and one of the main symptom they had for the year before diagnosis is that they didn't want to do anything but watch TV. They were not interested in doing anything, I think they were too tired. Anaemia was part of the issue for coeliac, and lack of nutrients. I wish I had worried more at the time, rather than wait for more obvious symptoms in a way, but hindsight is a wonderful thing..