Does anyone else have children who won't leave the house without a battle

[mrswoodentop]

I am at my wits end with this it drives me mad,none of my children will ever leave the house to do anything without moaning ,begging to stay home ,complaining,wanting to know exactly how long we are going to be out etc.

They are now 9 and 12 (well also have a 17 year old ,he was also like this,hasn't left the house apart from a driving lesson for 10 days now but I've given up with him,everyone says he's charming when he does go out and he does occasionally but sees no need to ,hes happy reading his book ,not AS or anything just likes his own company) but the younger ones aaaagh

Dh has taken the younger two to a local event today that they have been going on about wanting to go to for about 4 months .First thing ds3 says this morning is "do we have to go?"I want to stay at home ,at home they will spend the whole time moaning about wanting to watch TV /go on computer (not allowed all the time )or guess what complain they are bored,so offer trip out ,the ,moaning will start .Followed by the battle to put shoes on ,find jumper etc .DH thinks we should just not bother anymore ,he is on holiday at the moment and we tried to go out yesterday for the afternoon but it was just impossible ds3 moaned for so long and as soon as you take eyes off them they will sit down disappear to room,take shoes off again etc .

I see other families going off and doing fun things together and feel so jealous ,why do my children never want to do anything ,we try to be fun when out but the most common answer is "can we go home now,yesterday ds3 actually said that we had said just an hour and it was now 63 minutes so we can go home now

well have you tried not going anywhere with them and leaving them with the 17yr lod and go have fun yourself and see if they think they're missing out on anything.
But I would put time restrictions on tv computer and fridge etc. even if it means taking some vital piece of kit need to operate them (wink)
Not fair on you to have to not enjoy life like this so take a step back from including them and when they say they are bored give them a choice, chores or ... one other thing. It's their choice then and on their head if they are bored.

My children are 8 and 5 and are exactly the same. The only difference is that their issue is actually leaving the house and getting dressed etc ... Once they are out they are generally fine and then don't want to go home. I'm dealing with it by sticking to my guns and not letting them back down. I tell them we are going to x and they have to get ready and get their shoes on. They start doing the whole "i don't want to gooooo. It's not faaaaair. Why do I have toooo?" thing but I am firm. They do moan less now than they used to, whether they would do this anyway or whether me being firm has had some impact I'm not sure.