My oldest daughter is going through a grumpy phase. Any time I ask her to do something, or announce plans, I get an eye roll and an exasperated sigh. It's really starting to get on my nerves. I understand that it is summer, and she's been out of school for a whole week. School days are very structured and busy. I've been trying to keep the kids busy and make sure they always have something constructive to do. But my daughter is just so picky. No matter how fun it is, she just doesn't "feel like it." But she isn't tired enough for a nap either. She just wants to complain that everything we do is unsatisfying to her. Finally today I sent her outside with a book to read and a milkshake. It's lovely outside, she made a lot of progress on that book last week, and everyone likes milkshakes. Well she didn't feel like it, she didn't want to read that book right now, and she didn't want that flavor of milkshake. I said too bad, and explained to her that sometimes you just have to go ahead and do things, even if you don't feel like it, because you'll end up enjoying it. I don't know how else to get her out of this funk. I mean, if she was initiating her own play, I'd let her be. But she pretty much just follows me around all day complaining about various things.
How do you get kids to get engaged in things? When my husband is home, he just puts whiny kids to work. So they keep those feelings to themselves when he's home. I try to play with them. But I'm just not getting good results. (For example, I played a game of Battleship with my daughter this morning, and she just got frustrated when she couldn't find my boats and accused me of cheating. Then she quit so she could peek.) I'm getting a little worn out with her shooting down all my ideas.
She's 6 and just finished first grade.
How do you get kids to get engaged in things? When my husband is home, he just puts whiny kids to work. So they keep those feelings to themselves when he's home. I try to play with them. But I'm just not getting good results. (For example, I played a game of Battleship with my daughter this morning, and she just got frustrated when she couldn't find my boats and accused me of cheating. Then she quit so she could peek.) I'm getting a little worn out with her shooting down all my ideas.
She's 6 and just finished first grade.