Do kids get entertained too much these days?

Our grandson still plays out with his friends, either in front of their houses or at the swing park 5 minutes walk away, he’s 9, they also go on a walk most days. Crabbing at the local beach is a favourite, even 14 year old granddaughter joins in, but they’ve also been to the Isle of Wight for two days. I think it’s sad, there’s almost a competition to see who can do the most, a lot of it’s expensive and many can’t afford it, particularly now.

My Gdcs are so often taken out to do nice child-friendly things. I do sometimes think a bit more time at home learning to entertain themselves would be good, but heigh ho - dd and Sil enjoy the outings, too.

As a pp said, going on a bus is the best thing ever for Gdcs! (Not that they’re remotely blasé about planes, not a frequent event at all.)
I will take them on 2 buses to a big garden centre, which will take an hour, rather than drive in 20 minutes.
If they can get the front seats on top of a big red bus, even better - they do usually manage it.

I think they need to learn to keep themselves occupied/amused.A holiday is just abreak from routine so it means no school ,going to the park. working on their hobbies, seeing friends.I must have been areally bad mother ,my kids never did that amount of "activities" in any week in their lives ,yet they turned out great.

I think adults in a family do entertain the children more nowadays. I think it’s because the children don’t play out with friends any more. Arranged play dates? Not quite the same as knocking on for your friends and asking ‘is .... coming out to play?’. Times have certainly changed but looking back my 8y old self, playing out on our streets with hula hoops, roller skates, hopscotch, skipping ropes etc was 60y ago. Actually that thought alone has just pulled me up short! I can remember playing outside in Old Trafford with my younger sister and all our friends as if it were yesterday. No cost involved. Falling out of friends, falling back in again. No interference from grown ups. It was pretty glorious really.

It's partly down to social media too. My Facebook feed is always full of parents asking, 'Where can I take my child today? What's open today? Does anyone know what shows are on today?'

It's also due to the fact that there are just so many entertainment venues today which didn't exist in the past. Soft play, trampoline parks, pottery making, lessons for everything under the sun, theme parks etc.

When our children were young, none of these were available, they mostly played in the garden.

Ridiculous. My GC are inundated with toys, games, etc., and are never in the house long enough to play with any of them.

I've definitely noticed that children are brought to restaurants more than we were. When I was a child eating out was a huge treat.
But then I suppose eating out is generally more normal nowadays than it used to be.

It does children no harm to do nothing til they get bored when they devise something themselves. Otherwise they are just passive recipients of organised outings. We all need time to be happily bored. As a child we were never taken anywhere by parents. We found our own entertainment with local children, in the road, in the woods.
My grandmother never took me anywhere either. . Nor did she buy me gifts other than birthday or Christmas.
I loved her though and did not expect anything.

I think it may be that if there are children with different interests or at very different ages then parents may be trying to do something to accommodate each of them. That’s certainly the case with three of my grandchildren.

When my grandchildren stay over we do a lot with them, but they’re mostly our ‘normal’ activities. So in the summer we spend a lot of time on the allotment, we pick and sort fruit and veg and then turn it into cordial, jams, pickles etc. We do a lot of baking and cooking together and my husband takes them on bike rides or off to the garage to make something with wood.

Our organised activities are fewer in number, but will include a walk into town to buy an ice cream, a dip in the sea and play on the beach (we live at the seaside) and visits to nearby family. It’s easy to manage because we usually have the children serially, i.e. just one at a time and for my singleton grandchildren it pretty much reflects what their parents do.

They have more money than we did. People often have beach houses and caravans now which we never had, and a lot more choices with cars and the ability to get around. Just different.

I agree that children often need a rest after their holiday, and I know people who race from one attraction to another all the way through.
But I think Kircubbuns example is extreme, mine might have a few days camping, maybe a cinema trip, and some meeting up with friends.

The 7 year old is obsessed with history and has remembered most of the facts about the old kings and some battles too.

Alot of children are indulged these days,sadly more children don`t get the chance to even have a day out and have never had a holiday.
Very sad but very true.

It depends on the quality of the entertainment. It is a waste of childhood to spend it being passively entertained. Whatever the child does even if it is only watching TV the child should be actively and creatively thinking about what he is doing.

I know of course that most parent are not teachers but the essence of helping the child to be active and creative is in how you talk to them about what they are doing. For instance the simple question "Why do you like that?" whatever it's a about, a tv programme, an animal at the zoo, or a fairground rideand so forth.

I said to one of my granddaughters yesterday, after endlessly driving her back and forth into town all week, that I was going to get her to catch a bus.
Her face lit up, she was really exited by the prospect.
She doesn’t realise yet that a ten minute journey will take 45 minutes by the time it’s been around all the villages.

I remember being happily bored when I was a child and it led me to develop all sorts of imaginative games, ideas and plans. I suppose its helped me over the years to fill my own spare time quite happily. DH, however, is at a complete loss for how to fill his time unless there's something concrete to do!

Well that does sound like overkill but l think with smaller families nowadays child might need a little bit more entertainment. I come from a big family and there was always lots of children to play with. All the neighbours had big families so we were like our own Easter camp. It's good to leave children doing nothing for a while so they can wind down after a school term and find their own things to do. When parents are both working they want to make the best of time off but l know very few children who would engage in as much activity as your gc so don't decide that's the norm.

That sounds like an awful lot, but not really typical.

Children do get taken a lot more places nowadays though. I know children for whom getting on a plane is nothing, but going somewhere on a bus is very exciting

It used to be the other way around.

Short answer - yes! Children need time to just be and not be compulsively entertained the whole time.