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Parents Find Playing With Kids 'Boring,' and Kids Know It
Filed under: In The News, Research Reveals: Big Kids, Research Reveals: Tweens, Research Reveals: Teens
Does family game night bore you to tears? Credit: .A.A., Flickr
If you fear your head may explode if you have to play one more board game or build yet another village out of blocks, you're not alone.
A new survey commissioned by Disneyland Paris found that more than 20 percent of British parents have forgotten how to play with their kids, and 30 percent of moms and dads find any kind of play boring, UK's The Independent reports.
And if you think your kids can't read your poker face, think again: The survey also reveals that 16 percent of the participating kids, all between the ages of 5 and 15, can tell when you're bored. Also, 55 percent of kids are hankering for more quality time with their parental units.
What's to blame for the epidemic of ennui? Chores and work, according to half the 2,000 parents surveyed. Other reasons for the lack of playfulness include interference from rival siblings (32 percent) and technology -- 30 percent of parents surveyed say they choose to play computer games with their kids, but 89 percent of children prefer to play those games on their own.
Last summer, ParentDish asked some parents if they play with their children, and at least one mom confessed that play feels more like work, one more thing to pile on the heap of endless tasks involved with maintaining a household.
"I probably (really) play with them every other day," Megan Jordan, 32, a mother of three from Mississippi told us. "On those other days, they basically play around me while I write or manage other tasks. I'm always with them, though not always tuned in. ... I feel enormous pressure and guilt when it comes to playing with my kids."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 3)
8-31-2010 @ 3:35PM
Becca said...Wow this is ground breaking really. I say find an activity you and your kid enjoy doing together, cooking, board games, hiking whatever do it regularly and the rest of the time let them play by themselves or with siblings and friends. My parents never played with me the way parents play today they were very involved loving parents but my tea party guests were stuffed animals.
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9-01-2010 @ 9:35AM
Ray said...Great Article!
I agree. The one activity I do with my students that seems to get everyones attention is to grow a TickleMe Plant. Every child seems to love this house plant and few adults are aware that you can now easily grow a TickleMe Plant at home. Tickle the leaves and they fold up! Minutes later the leaves reopen. Search TickleMe Plant to order the kit. It is the one activity that makes everyone smile.
See the video..you wont believe thie pet like plant is real but it is.
9-01-2010 @ 10:01AM
Angel said...In your case when you never received the attention from your parents, you don't realize what you were missing! How unfortunate for you and your parents to have lost that time as you were growing up.
8-31-2010 @ 5:07PM
taust115 said...My husband turned our family onto geocaching. It's a great way to go out and play with the family. There is a site (geocaching.com) that you connect to and it's like hide and seek for everyone. And we go with our 3 kids (ages 11, 8, 2.5) and our dog. We all get to do it together! You should try it!
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9-01-2010 @ 6:43AM
vicvod said...Report spam! Don't Just give it a negative vote,REPORT IT!
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9-01-2010 @ 12:24PM
chuckie said...It doesn't do any good. It never gets deleted. This is why there's so much of it on every message board.
9-01-2010 @ 3:20PM
Alicia said...Every time I report it, it gets deleted. Or, well, almost every time.
9-01-2010 @ 6:49AM
geomcd said...If this is true, I think it only shows how shallow and self-centered parents of this generation are. My children, grand-children, and great grandchildren are anything but boring. I love the days my granddaughter works and I babysit my greatgrandson. I'm looking forward to five days with another great-grandson from out of state while his parents go to Hawaii.
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9-01-2010 @ 12:44PM
Tess said...Hope your kids know how lucky they are to have you.
9-01-2010 @ 8:55AM
Rosemary Clark said...When my kids were little I felt the same way..I stayed so stressed out with work, 8 to 5 job, then home to housework, no time to entertain the kids..it seemed like I was in a bad mood all the time always yelling at them, then feeling guilty because I did,...Then one day when I was "complaining" to my mom she said...."drop everything you're doing right now, go outside and enjoy those babies, there's nothing as important as them, and all of that other stuff will be there tomorrow, enjoy THEIR life"......I'm am so thankful I listened to her. 18yrs later, I have no regrets, bike riding, rollerblading, board games, etc....has kept ME younger, and more intuned with them. I am so glad I listened to my mom..
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9-01-2010 @ 9:17AM
debi said...this article breaks my heart----kids are here to entertain us grown @#%*$ adults!!!???? how sad for the children of these morons....the best times in my life, have been spent with my boys. not nessasarly "playing", but also just hanging out talking. ASK them what they think.....they'll tell you and i can just about guarentee you----you won't be bored!!!! and when i thought it couldn't get any better.....ive been blessed with a gran'daughter that i have been allowed to teach everything i know about being a good hearted, good spirited, young woman in training.....because that's what "we" are suppose to do.....teach how to be good people. even more so now---with so much evil and wicked in the world.....KIDS ARE PEOPLE TOO!!!!!!
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9-01-2010 @ 9:35AM
ancientway said...OMG!!! How many past generations grew up without their parents 'playing with them'??? My grandmother never got down on her hands and knees and played cars or dolls with her kids. Geez, she was too busy working, sewing, canning, gardening. Kids entertained themselves, in their very little free time, and they did it without video games, tvs, iPods. Now, if they're not entertained every minute, you're a bad parent. What is wrong with letting a kid be BORED for awhile and see what they come up with? How about...using their imagination? My parents never 'played' with us and we never ran out of things to do. And they were good and loving parents too, they just didn't 'play'.
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9-01-2010 @ 11:39AM
Kathleen Vaughan said...Ancientway, yours is the most common-sense post I've seen. Let's face it, most juvenile activity is mind-numbing boring to an adult. That doesn't mean they can't do things with and for their kids! How about walking, talking, playing outdoor games, or just plain hanging out? I don't recall my mother EVER "playing" with me, but I certainly never felt deprived. It's that little thing called a child's imagination, it can take you to wherever you want to go.
9-01-2010 @ 11:49AM
Helena Lytle said...you are so right...my parents didn't play with me and I don't have a criminal record, I don't take drugs, I have a job and I'm doing just fine...I don't even drink, smoke, or take an anti depressant
9-01-2010 @ 9:33AM
ancientway said...And don't get me wrong, my parents biked with us, hiked, swam, and sometimes we did board games. We went to museums and orchestras and historical places. Just as I did with mine (who have grown up to be amazingly well-adjusted, college grads). But they didn't feel it was their job to keep us entertained.
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9-01-2010 @ 9:47AM
Chris said...Other people find these kids boring as well - especially when they are screaming and crying in the grocery stores, theatres, doctors offices etc. I can't stand being anywhere near them.
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12-15-2010 @ 7:38AM
Larry Fischer said...As a grandparent, I try to never say no to anything my grandchildren want to do, whether it be play games, spell new words, or watch Imagination Movers, etc. together. Sometimes I have work to do and they understand. The important thing is for parents (and grandparents) to listen to their children when they want to be listened to, and to be there to guide them when they want or need to be guided. But never feel guilty, it shows.
9-01-2010 @ 9:43AM
poor69rich said...you get out of your children what you put into them.......
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9-01-2010 @ 9:52AM
Lodie said...Why are parents playing with their kids? They have friends for that. Parents should be parents/leaders, not playmates.
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9-01-2010 @ 9:57AM
Yael said...It is a shame of a title, because some parents just don't understand the blessing of having a healthy child to play with. I had a son who was super sick with epilepsy seizing for an entire year, and I could not play a game with him at all, and today, I can, Today I am beyond grateful whenever my son asks me to play chutes and ladders, operation, whatever game I get to play with my healthy son and that is all that matters.
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