Do kids have to be entertained all the time?

there is nothing wrong with entertaining them, it is keeping them occupied and happy. do you have a kid?? because if you do you will know why. i have 3 and i need to keep the occupied and happy or else they will be like tails following me and i wont get any work done at home. so do you have a kid? and you will be able to answer why.

I really don't think that children need to be entertained all the time. I think when they are completely busy with things that aren't engaged with their parents to a certain extent, then they are missing lessons that they need to have in their lives. Yes, some of the more adult things that we do in our lives are things that aren't really interesting to children, but I really think that without these lessons through observation, the adjustment to becoming an adult is something that would be more difficult for a child to make.

My 3 year old son always wants to take cars with him when we go shopping. That was his own doing I didnt take toys with us shopping when he was little to keep him busy. He just sat in the cart and behaved. Nows another story though lol hes become a monster running off and screaming if I try to make him sit in the cart. I think its good for kids to learn to entertain themselves though to answer your question.

My sister and I were talking about this just yesterday.We made our own entertainment. We rehearsed and put on plays and practised our tap-dance routines. We made our own enjoyment. No television but we listened to the radio programmes for children. And they had serials too on the radio and we could hardly bear the excitement to wait to hear what happened next week. Saturday morning was the children's cinema and we had a sing along before the movie began. And then come rain or shine we went for walks. Yep -went for long walks. Answer: No they do not have to be entertained all the time they must learn to develop and use their imaginative skills

Heyya bounce..I don't think that children should be readily entertained all the time. They come to expect constant excitement then. I also read that boredom was a way to develop the imagination...they will make up something to do or actually go outside to play..lol.

There is a huge difference between a child being occupied and being passively entertained. I can say for myself, that I could never just "sit down and shut up" for an hour because someone else needs to get something done. Children need to come with us to the grocery store for safety reasons, but it is so boring for them and we expect them to just be passive and quiet, when our own attention spans wouldn't allow us to do that in a similar situation -- we would be reading a newspaper or having a conversation or something. So, do I think kids should be passively watching tv all the time to keep them entertained? No. But children should not be ignored if there is nothing they can make a game of (like when they are stuck in a grocery cart.) At home they can play imagination games with their toys and engage their brains, but that can be hard to do when out running errands. At the grocery store, it is good to have a conversation with your kids, teaching them new words, like names of exotic fruits or ingredients in a food. And they can help you add up the total of your grocery bill if you round the prices to easy whole numbers. "Ok, so we have 12 dollars of stuff in the cart, and this thing costs 3 dollars, so how much does the stuff in the cart cost now?" My parents used to do this with us, and it kept us occupied while working on our math skills!

No way...i did not do it...and would not tell anyone else to do it. Children have to be taught to be independent. Yes, we play with them for sometime, love them, do their chores when they are really young...but as they are growing teach them to be independent....

I think it all comes down to the times we live in. Back in the day ,most mom's were stay at home moms and they would make the time to play with their kids and if there were down times , mom would say go out and play. and we did , All day . Without a chaperon!Or my mom would say , if I were bored , it was my own fault and find something to do.But if I were Still bored it was ok. It was just a lazy day. You are talking to a girl who Loved long car trips. all I needed was a radio and I was good. No video games or DVDs! These days , both parents are working outside the home. They don't have the time to play with the kids and parents are so busy with their own projects they prefer that the kids were " out of the way." so games and DVD's are great. Anything that keeps the child quiet is used so they can get a chore like shopping done! A good DVD will keep kids from asking " Are we there yet?" And video games keep a child safe at home, not playing outside on those dangerous streets.

hi bounce no they sure do not and when I was Little we made our own fun and played counting games with each other when on long trips. we had a minimum of toys as it was during the depression years and my dad was the town doctor who got paid a lot of times in produce or meat, milk or eggs. we sure never went hungry as we had a farm and large gardens and fruit trees so our own fresh veggies and fruit,meat,eggs and milk of course.so I was brought up to be thrifty and I carried this on through raising my own family.I did not keep my kids entertained all the time. we had a television and books and that was it. I gave our son a record player when he was young and he bought dozens of records then in his teens he got a recorder but my children learned to entertain them selves and we had books to to foster reading.My son grew up in the electronic age and earned his own money for various electronic gadgets then came a computer and he was in heaven.,but he is also frugal in his thinking too. kids do not ghave to be mechanically entertained if they have imaginations and a lot of love.more children need attention and love from their parents than more stuff to entertain them with.they had the usual toys like legos and things like that but they were to push then into u sing their imaginations, ..

Interesting discussion point you have raised.I think that most of the parents try to keep their kids occupied with something so that they are not a hindrance to the parents' work.While keeping kids entertained is not totally wrong, it ought to be balanced and purposeful.Now if the parent is going to do some household chore, I think in certain ways, especially for somewhat grown up kids, the parent could involve the kids also.This would bring a fun element into the chore and at the same time,teach the kids something about house keeping and it's importance.So the key is getting the child involved and not keep him away in his own world all the time.

Hi, I am also a mother and I do agree that kids need to have something to entertain them most of the time. When I need to do some housechores and cooking or other things at home, I need to make sure my son is entertaining by something like watching his favourite cartoon,playing some toys or reading books. At least,he is busy with something else to keep his time on and then I can concentrate to do my own things. In between, I have to keep an eye on him too. But I do read from my friends' blog about letting their children playing with Ipad,I don't see the point of getting those expensive gadget for children. I prefer to get those educational computer toy or some educational toy for my son. Or story books are good for children.it help to build uop a good habit of reading. Because I only have one son,that is why he does not have any accompany at home to play with him except me and his daddy. So to keep him entertained when I was busy with something else at home, I have to get him some schedule on what he is going to do everyday.

i dont think it's good to have them entertained all the time. i notice some children who are always entertained even in public places that later on annoy other people. i think kids also need to understand how discipline works.

Our children must be a priority at all times and we should do all that ends all when it comes to our kids. Naturally we can't be there one hundred recentness of the time, but we must find ways to keep them busy. As if we do not keep them busy the bad influence will certainly take over. I never thought about getting them out the way, but simply when I was way too busy with work I would make sure they were in sports and of course I went to each and every one of their games.

for me, though im still not a parent, kids need to be entertained. if you want to do chores such as grocery shopping, you can only concentrate when your kid is doing something rather than keep on bugging you and keep playing around the grocery area. this is the best way to keep your child from doing naughty things especially if he/she have not someone to play with. you can do your chores properly and on time and at the same time your kid is having fun on whatever he is doing.

they shouldnt be because then they dont learn how to entertain themselves. they always rely on other people and things to entertain them and have no imagination of their own.

That was marketing that tried to convince you of that! Nothing is worse than giving a child a toy only to see the child prefer the box it came in, unless you're an experienced parent. Teaching and talking to a child is far more rewarding than expecting a toy to do something!