Moan moan moan! Is this normal?

[Jhas]

I am really worried about my eldest DS who is nearly 9 as he is constantly moaning. I mean he literally complains about EVERYTHING that does not involve sitting on his bum and playing on his tablet or watching TV. Home schooling as a result is a stressful time of constant up hill struggles.
He literally has nothing to complain about! I find myself telling him about children who live on rubbish tips and fight with rats over food, but he seems utterly impervious to anything we say. It's beginning to have a real negative affect on the house especially in lock down and I don't know how to snap him out of it. He is a generally happy child and very chatty and loving. But the complaining is driving me around the twist! Has anyone got any advice on how to get him to appreciate what he has before I send him to live in the garage!

Do it back to him, for everything you do every time he is in ear shot. Moan about unpacking the dishwasher, cooking food, any housework, admin anything. Maybe he will realise how much you do and don't complain about.

I don't know if this will work but weirdly I have found it affective when children are angry too, say, "whatever you do don't laugh because if you start laughing right now..." and I don't know why but it works.

Two different approaches.

No, it’s not normal in a normal situation but we’re not in a normal situation right now and a lot of kids are finding it very hard being out of normal routine like school and activities.

My DS is the same age, we’ve done lots with him getting him out for very long walks (horrendous child abuse according to him), on his bike, growing stuff, home movies with popcorn, lots of family board games, etc but even he is a highly emotional, miserable little bugger a lot of the time. A big change from his normal self. Very attention seeking and clingy too. He’s not mixing with other DC at the moment and it really affects them, not having normal childhood interactions. They still struggle to articulate what’s going on in their heads at that age.

They just need lots of reassurance that it’s a tough time to get through but we will get through it and next year we’ll be saying ‘do you remember when we were in lockdown’. That’s how I deal with it anyway. Lighten the mood, make them laugh.

Thanks. Yeah I try to make sure I take into account the fact that we are in lockdown. But tbh he was a grumble bum before that happened. This has just meant I get no break from it!
EnidsCrochetCorner I will actually try your ideas. They're better than what I was thinking I might do which was actually just do nothing for him all day and make him get his own stuff organised, but I might save that for an "if all else fails" option.
We do get out a lot, and we do lots of activities together but nothing seems to stop the grump!