DD is 6. Year 2.
Pre-covid I could leave her for 30 minutes or so playing while I went to a different part of the house doing housework or whatever. She’d play for an hour or so after school with no problems.
Now she just won’t. She comes in from school, eats and then whinges that she doesn’t know how to play. If I sit with her and start playing with her toys she will sit there saying that’s not how you play with them, when I ask her how you play with them she just shrugs and says she doesn’t know.
I don’t let her have her tablet on school nights, and the TV is only on for an hour after school as I found she was horrible going to bed. But now on school nights she just sits whinging she’s bored or following me round telling me she doesn’t know how to play. If I let her get bored she just sits there for 2 hours (school finishes at 3pm now, bedtime at 6.30pm with 40 minutes or so to get home and eat and half hour wind down with bath and story) crying and following me.
School isn’t helpful in that sense as Golden Time on a Friday is now sat at desks on the school tablets or watching film on the whiteboard (but sat at their table not on the carpet) as they’ve got no toys anymore.
I don’t know how to help her. I’m a single parent and could do with some headspace. I used to love watching her play on the floor next to me.
She went back to school in June but it was a very similar set up of facing forwards, limited golden time. So she’s been like this since June really.
Any ideas to help her play again? Or do I just need to let her get bored? Will she eventually play again?
Not sure if its an only child issue or 6 year old issue.