What age do children leave you alone

[homarr]

I am home with my 2&5 year old children.

They have spent the entire day saying "mum, mum, mum, mum", "can you get me a drink? can you get me some food? Can you help me put my clothes on? Can you change the channel? Can we go out yet? Will you play a game? Can we have a bath?"

Endless tasks that they make me do. I have literally ran around like a blue arsed fly all weekend.

If I leave the house with them it's great & we have a nice time but as soon as we come back it's "What are we doing next? Are we going back out?".

I just want to be left alone for 10 minutes.

What age does this stop??

Mine are 10 and 8 and are still like this 😳

Never 🤦🏼‍♀️

Yep 11 and 8 here and still like this. Within 5 mins of something ending/getting home/activity finishing its - "I'm bored"

Came to this thread hoping it stopped soon. Mine at 5 and I.Am.EXHAUSTED with the constant talking at me 😫

Counting down the 3.5 weeks left of the summer holidays!

Depends how much you teach them to do for themselves.

I was dreadful, pandering to mine, then we stayed with a friend. Her 7 and 4 year olds went downstairs in the morning and helped themselves to cereal and orange juice, and watched TV for an hour.

In contrast, I still sometimes take DD (19) breakfast in bed!

"Mummy watch this!!" Throws a teddy in the air.

"MUMMEEEEEEEE YOU DIDNT WATCH!!!!"

"Mummy look at this" Jumps off sofa. Yes, wonderful.

"Mummy watch again"

Rinse and repeat for twelve hours.

I’m in bed with norovirus and my sweet 10&8 yr old boys are just getting on with it. I made chicken stock this morning and just made them packet noodles with it, left a cucumber, carrots and pepperami in fridge. Probably won’t hear from them for a bit. Feel really sad for them, but yes they’ve pretty much left me alone (in pain) all day. Won’t be long!

My 12yo doesn't need much from me unless he is hungry!
My 10yo wants much more interaction but she will watch tv or play a game for an hour or so before coming back....

Mine is 5 and takes herself off to draw for ages, I realise now that isn't normal. About to have a newborn though so don't think I'm too smug about it...

When they leave home.

My nearly 3yr old is very happy to entertain herself for an hour or so as long as I'm in the room, but I don't get much enjoyment out of that at the moment as I also have a baby...

2 & 5? I'm sorry to say that you've got a loooong way to go @homarr!

I'd say 10+ and you get a decent amount of peace and quiet, but depends on the DC. My 14 and 11 year olds only come and find me now when they're bored or hungry, usually the latter.

Mine are 25, 23 and 15 and still hunt me down…

We've got a 6yo who will occupy herself with drawing or reading for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The rest of the time it's non-stop 'Watch me' 'I'm hungry' 'Mummeee' etc.

But we've built up to this gradually with 'quiet time' which was initially when naps stopped as there was a long period when sometimes she'd nap and sometimes she didn't. We'd put groclock on the nap setting and explain she could either nap or play in her room until the sun lit up. It's gradually turned into a couple of hours of independent play time which she now makes plans for! It only works if she's done lots of exercise and other stuff in the morning though, if we've been in the house all day it doesn't work!

21 still at it so no idea….
does get better 9/10/11 I have 4 so think I’m used to it now

Oh no 😂😂. Not the response I was hoping for haha! I thought someone would say when the eldest was about 7 or something 🙈🙈.

My 5 year old is actually really independent and knows how to do so much herself but she chooses to get me to do it instead!!

I am literally a slave.

Solidarity- fellow mum of a 5 and 2 year old. The only time I get a break from the "mummy watch this" circus is when the toddler goes to sleep and I put the TV on.

DS (6) has been able to control the tv by himself for at least a year! He will also sometimes get things for his sister (2.5). He helps himself to snacks even though he is not allowed to.

He still refuses to cut his own food up. He eventually started dressing himself after an extended battle.

DD likes to do things for herself if she possibly can but it often takes a while!

From about 5 you can train them a bit on this. It doesn’t completely stop but you can reduce it.

I teach them that when I have a cup of tea I will do nothing except a major emergency. They have to wait.

I rarely do things for them they can do themselves like get a drink or peel a carrot for a snack or find X t-shirt. I give them freedom to do stuff but also expect them to do their own grunt work.

I tell them when I’m at the end of my rope with noise and chaos and they are only allowed near me for quiet cuddles. Otherwise need to leave the room I’m hiding in.

in general teach them to clean after themselves and put things back etc. is so so (hard work but) important for future ease of life.

I say many times a day ‘I’m not your slave so work away yourself’. And ‘my job is to teach you not do it for you’.

I'd say around 8/9 it gets better, at 10 my DD is pretty self sufficient but I have always encouraged them to things themselves that they are able to and always insist they wait a short period for attention. I don't think giving them every second of your time does them (or you!) any favours.

Mine's 18 and still inclined to holler muuuuuum from time to time.

Dds are nearly 13 and 11 and I am the default parent. I was in the kitchen cooking, chopping etc, I kid you not, they walked past their dad and came to me to sort out their spat 🙄

Yeah, good luck! It’s a weary road.

Not always even then 🙄

Perhaps I do need to start being a bit more strict in terms of getting 5 year old to do more things for herself

She can definitely do a lot of things herself but likes me to run round after her for whatever reason.

Ok, I am going to be a bit firmer when it comes to something like "can you get me some crisps" when she is blatantly capable of doing that. My Mum did absolutely everything for me when I was growing up and as a result I was an absolutely clueless adult. Didn't even know how to turn a washing machine on until about 22 years old when I moved out!

Not doing her any favours and I!!

Good call. My dd was the same until I started saying 'go and get them then!'