how often do you play with your kids each day?

[720L]

I'm wondering how often you play with your kids each day. Our kids seem to be always wanting us to play with them. They hardly ever play alone. I don't feel like I "over play" with them. I want them to play alone or together sometimes. Some days I never play with them. I'm feeling guilty! I always read them a story at bedtime and I am with them all day (except for when they are in school). We are almost always in the same room together, even if I'm not giving them my total attention. It just seems like when I was little we always played alone or with each other. Maybe it's because they have too many toys?

 

[lucincia]

My DD7 and DD3 play with each other a lot while DD7 is at home from school. When I get bored, I chase them through the house and work them up into a frenzy until DW yells at me to stop ..... every day

 

[Tigger&Belle]

My youngest is almost 6yo and I don't really physically play with him. We sometimes play games, read and of course I listen and talk to him, etc. My DH plays "foyer football" or "playroom basketball" most days with him. That's a highlight of his day. His older brothers also play with him sometimes, but in general he entertains himself. He's always been good at that and doesn't expect for us to lead his entertainment.

 

[Marseeya]

I'm wondering how often you play with your kids each day. Our kids seem to be always wanting us to play with them. They hardly ever play alone. I don't feel like I "over play" with them. I want them to play alone or together sometimes. Some days I never play with them. I'm feeling guilty! I always read them a story at bedtime and I am with them all day (except for when they are in school). We are almost always in the same room together, even if I'm not giving them my total attention. It just seems like when I was little we always played alone or with each other. Maybe it's because they have too many toys?

How old are they?

Mine were always very good at entertaining themselves, especially DD. We could give her a stack of plastic cups and she would literally spend hours stacking and unstacking them.

While I think it's great for parents to spend good quality time interacting with their kids, it's also very good for the kids to know how to entertain themselves. I'm not criticizing her parenting, but I have a friend who has to entertain her kids every minute of the day and she just doesn't get a break. It's an endless cycle for her.

 

[720L]

They are 7 and 4. Some days I feel like I never get a break. I try and make them play alone, but they usually end up fighting! I'll even suggest something to play. I'll say why don't you play house or Little Peoples? They never want to play with the hundreds of toys they have! It's like they don't know how to play! How hard is it to pretend play? I don't get it!

 

[lucincia]

Have they ever played together? We have our DDs play together from very young age. We involved older DD in all of younger DD's carings - fetching diapers, helping with bath, etc. so hopefully they can build a close relationship early on. Now they play pretty well together - now and then they'll get into a fight, the typical stuff of "my toy your toy" stuff meltdown. I guess they're still kids so that's bound to happen

As for toys, ours have hundreds of toys too (bad grandparents!) What we do it we only keep a few upstairs in their playroom. We keep most in the boxes down in the storage. Every other month my wife and I cycle toys from storage in and out of playroom. So they always have semi-fresh toys to play with. For Christmas, we typically don't open up all the presents (if we can help it - if giftgivers are present - like grandparents - we have to then). Then we dole out the presents throughout the year. This way, they're not overwhelmed with all the new toys and everything gets old after a month.

Not sure if this good parenting or not But that's how we do it.

 

[dismom9761]

My older three play together or alone alot of the time.On the weekends especially we play together as a family.My DH plays the playstation with them pretty often.I guess I never really thought about it.My oldest loves to play by himsef and so does my DD6.My DS8 always has to be around one of us.My DD6(almost 7) and DS8 played for hours and hours together this weekend on some pretend game(I think school).

Then there is the baby.She is always with me or the older kids.If they let her she plays with them.If not she is with me.

 

[tiggersmom2]

I was going to respond.....but I think a popcorn smilie may be more in line.

 

[720L]

They play together sometimes. My DS4 plays by himself better then DD7. I also rotate their toys, otherwise you wouldn't be able to walk in the house! I guess it's just my kids. I also don't let them watch too much tv so thats not the problem.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

How's this tiggersmom2?

I'm lucky my kids who are 8 entertain themselves or play with eachother most of the time when we're at home. I am more likely to read, watch a movie, cook, go outside, or just sit and hang with them as opposed to "playing". I do get them together very frequently with their friends and they play with them just like I played with my whole neighborhood of friends when I was growing up. It varies so much with the individual personalities involved.

 

[slo]

I used to play with my youngest DD all the time when she was little and before her baby sister was born. Now.....I don't play with them much at all because I'm so busy with other things around the house. Luckily, my 7yr old is awesome with my 2yr old and they play with each other all the time and I don't think I'm even missed.

Because of this lack of time for play, my DH and I always make sure that we do extra things with our girls like taking them to Disney on Ice and other things like that. Next week we are taking our 7yr old to see The Polar Express at the IMAX theater in Chicago - I'm pretty excited about it!!!

 

[Skylarr29]

It is very important that your children play by themselves also.You should try to figure out a way to get them to do things together such as maybe a fun game or activity.If you are always playing with them then it will be harder later when they are at school etc to socialize and keep themselves entertained.

 

[Beth76]

It varies day to day. I play with them everyday. I play with them seperately, I play with them together. They play seperately alone and they play together too. It just depends on our schedule each day exactly how much time we're together.