Our kids are 10, 8 and 3 and recently their free time - weekends, school holidays etc have been getting tricker.
How do you keep everybody (at least relatively) happy when you go out?
They are generally pretty good but sometimes create havoc. For example, we went to a softplay recently but the eldest had no one to play with and spent a lot of time winding up the other 2 kids and their friends. But I can’t always find someone to join us who has kids exactly the same age, people are at work etc.
If we go to a play park or national trust the older two spend 2 minutes at the park before moaning they want to go home. Yet the youngest is loving it.
I try and balance a range of activities in the holidays, meeting with friends and doing things for the older ones like climbing but often the youngest can’t join in or throws tantrums/runs off when bored which is really stressful!!
How do I manage the holidays/free time without completely losing my mind?????
OH says to give the eldest a screen to stop them messing around. But my argument is surely at 8 and 10 they should be trusted to ‘behave’ and either play nicely or sit at the table or park for 30-45 mins?
How do others manage this please?
OH is brilliant but generally not around in the holidays and we don’t have much help with childcare.