What are we doing next?

[ramanw]

6 year old driving me insane.

Every single day its "can you play with me". The weekend comes and we always do a few things over the weekend e.g park, soft play, swimming, riding bikes.

As soon as we come home from one thing, she will ask "what are we doing next? Can I go swimming now". She does this all day Saturday and will start again as soon as she wakes up on Sunday. I try my best not to get angry but it is infuriating. I don't always want to have a busy day. I'm ill and she's still asking about how we are going to fill the day.

Is everyone else's kid like this??

You need to let her get bored in order to learn to entertain herself at times.

@MeMyCatsAndMyBooks You are so right. She struggles so much playing on her own which is probably our fault. Perhaps a few days of letting her be bored is what's needed.

She is obviously used to her days being filled by one thing after another so you need to break the cycle which could be tough to start with but for the sake of your sanity needs to be done. Suggest things she can do alone or say “I don’t know, what are you going to do”? TBH if until now you have provided a full on schedule of entertainment she will need some guidance to change her habits.

It's completely normal for a 6 year old to want someone to play with/be entertained, but it is also quite annoying!

I agree with pp re. letting her entertain herself, mix this in with playing with her and being 100% present.

Also, let her know the plans for the weekend on Saturday morning. If she can tell the time you can give her timings, if not you can make a.schedule for her with the order of events (breakfast, independent play for an hour, swimming, lunch, watch a movie, play together for an hour etc ). This way she knows up front when you'll be playing with her/when you'll be doing an activity outside the house and when she needs to play by herself. They're often much better at getting on with stuff if they know it's for a limited time.