How to Entertain Small Children? An Impossible Task

Ever meet a small child who wanted to "play something", or "watch something" in that very moment? You as the adult/parent feel you should stop what you are doing so you can go play that game, or watch that cartoon/movie, only to end up watching and playing alone after said child decides you aren't playing right, or they want to do something else because things aren't going their way.

I my friend experience this daily and I want someone with active children to understand that you are not alone.

I have a five-year-old diva who spends most of her time at daycare where it's 90% play and 5% color time. I asked myself why I pay $145/week for her to "develop social skills", only to come home with her play switch still "turn-t" to the max with a higher demand for something to play. After my 9hr workday talking to one disgruntle customer to the next, to the 50th, I still muster the strength to continue the day of play with my little diva. Not to mention, I had a brother for her who is eight for just this purpose, but according to her, "he doesn’t know how to play my kind of game".

One of her favorite games to play is Guess Who. We have it in the board game form and the card game form (they are slightly similar). What confuses me is that she believes she (1) wrote the rules, but (2) never wins, then (3) I cheat every-time. I've gotten so over being (1) dragged into playing a game that was once fun for me too but now it's not, and (2) accused of cheating, that I ended up hiding both games and lying to her about misplacing it. Yes, I lie to my kids. It builds character and I do it so good they believe it to be the truth, so 2 stars for me :)!!!

She is very technological so I can no longer tell her that she will have to wait to turn on a tablet, or computer, or tv or game console; she already has it on before asking me if she can play on one of them. Oh BUT...let something not be charged, then it turns into HULK vs. Wolverine, and once again it is all my fault HER tablet is dead and when I offer an alternative, she cries uncontrollably, giving me several rebuttals on why the alternative wouldn’t work the same as the initial device that was now out of commission.

I have concluded that in the next year, when she starts losing teeth, I can almost guarantee I will hear something about the amount of tooth fairy money that she expected to get versus what she got and that too will not be good enough for her!

I know that I previously mentioned the fact that you cannot please small children, but after being around my teenage Godchildren, I now realize that you cannot please any child at this point.

My now fourteen-year-old godson is addicted to his PS4, and what boy teenager wouldn’t be? His birthday just recently passed, and he begged me to get him a new game that wasn’t set to release until next month. I told him that I was going to buy it for him when it got close to the release date. The first thing he did was fold his arms and make irritable noises with his mouth, letting me know that my answer was not what he wanted to hear. Now that to me was a huge sign of ungratefulness, and the point I tried to make to him was that even if I was to “pre-order” this game, you still wouldn’t be able to play until the release date, so what difference would it make if I buy it now or later? While trying to make this a teachable moment for him, he still found a way to put into his own head that I told him NO!

SMH! At this point, I give up!