Child won't/can't entertain themselves - Support thread

[BertieBotts]

Anyone else struggling with a child (of any age) who does not know how to entertain/occupy themselves? Battles with screen time also welcome.

I have really struggled with this. My 11yo (diagnosed with ADHD) STILL struggles with this. I have tried everything and read every article and book :o So hopefully I can offer some suggestions for more "typical" children, and anyone in the same boat or who doesn't want to make progress but just wants to commiserate - you are welcome too! I am still trying things with DS1 so I hope to have a place to track progress/gain moral support here as well.

It seems especially to be a big issue at the moment when everyone is stuck in with extremely limited options to tire them out, so I thought it might be a good time.

Jump in with questions/rants/experience?

Yes, my eldest was like this.
The number of times I've given thanks that this situation never happened when he was a child. I'm not sure we'd have survived as a family.

To give you hope - as an adult, he has been putting his energy into "doing things" since he's been furloughed over the last however many weeks it is. He's taken over cooking, shopping, cleaning, fixing things, decluttering, putting energy into getting things for other folk who are having difficulty, putting energy into organising things (family quiz / decorating the house for the VE day party / etc).

As a child he never settled to anything - I was amazed how long dc2 stayed at things, though I suspect she was just "normal" and it was dc1 who was outside the curve.

Can I send a massive bunch of to everyone living with someone like my ds was, at the moment please.

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Thank you, that's lovely to hear! And yes if this had happened when he was younger or before DS2 was born I'm not sure we'd have come out of it in one piece as it is I am just about kept sane by his ability to call his friends and play with the baby. Otherwise most of our interactions are hear negative which isn't nice for anyone. We have tried signing him up for activities but he just quits them - longest he's lasted is 4 months.