Why do my kids hate my allotment!

[Mutabilis]

Just had another really disappointing allotment visit where the kids moaned, complained, fought with each other and begged to go home until I gave up after 30mins and we came home again. They are 8 and 3, how do I get them interested or at least occupied enough that I can actually garden?! Everything is so overgrown and I can't tackle it as they won't let me get on with it. They bring toys and scooters with them, they've got their own gardening tools that they won't use (they only want to use mine and risk impaling themselves or each other on a hoe), they're both scared of worms and bugs so I can't engage them on a bug hunt. I even bring cake but they eat it and then say "can we go home now." They do like fruit picking but it never lasts long enough. Has anyone got any tried and tested ideas that work with their kids? I'd love them to enjoy gardening too, but I'm happy to settle for them just playing so I can dig and weed.

DS1 is 7 and can wield some real garden tools. He enjoys deadheading and some weeding. DS2 (4) is a dead weight still in the garden but will water at random.

It was always a struggle with my dc too. I think to an extent you have to accept the short attention span and work with it. Only go with them if you have fairly quick jobs to do. They're never going to enjoy spectating a half day digging session.

I set aside a corner of mine with a patch of grass, a bench and a little mud kitchen (made from charity shop scraps). They could play or sit and have a little picnic. It helps if there are other kids, it's great when they roam around in gangs picking blackberries in the hedges etc.

My children have never shown any interest in my allotment, they occasionally appear if there is fruit to pick (raspberries especially) but within 20 minutes they are "bored". Fortunately I can leave them at home with DH and go on my own. A friend of mine does take her 3 children to their allotment and she built a wigwam den out of long tree branches but bamboo canes would work just as well. They also do a lot of digging holes as was mentioned above.
My mum got an allotment in the late 1970s/early 80s and I remember being bored witless by it because there was nothing to do, I did pod peas, pick strawberries etc but it was not generally an entertaining activity for me and mostly my mum went on her own. However I now love gardening and have my own large allotment so some of mum's enthusiasm must have rubbed off on me