Why?

@YrNemo Oh my gosh, my later father in law was very much like that . The house was filled with antiques and delicate things mostly from my mother in law's family. Don't touch this, don't touch that. It was never easy for the kids (or me) to be there.

@much2say I use another approach with my kids when they were little. I said, 'as long as you don't damage the furniture intentionally, go ahead - and enjoy the memory you create with each other as little children.' These days, we would touch a certain scar on mark or whatever the middle one did, and she would laugh, 'yes, I remember that time we were playing this game, and this happened...'

Whenever we took our little kids to their paternal grandma's place (ages ago), grandma would always be anxious, 'pls, don't touch the sofas, pls, don't touch the table, pls, don't move around too much, you are damaging our carpets and floors, pls, don't use the toilet, we want to keep it clean....' In the end, she took us to her tiny deck and garden in the back, 'pls, don't touch this, that, this, that...'

See, I forgot about those things. In my mind, I thought, 'weird, don't little boys love the parks and outings?'

@YrNemo I have a lot of nephews and during their Christmas break, they didn’t go outside to play. Come to think of it, no children could be seen playing outside at all. They were all in their house playing with their gadgets or watching YouTube

I remember running after my little children whenever they played in the park many years ago. I used up many of my lifetimes whenever I had to take the kids there for some hours.)

You could be right there, Grandma seemed to be very determined to go to that park (I can't think of any park around that shopping centre. The closet is about 2 miles or so away.)

aha, that sounds very good too. I didn't think of that angle!

I didn't think of that!!! (those digitals stuff, games included...) Thanks for pointing that out .

@YrNemo Now they prefer to play with the tablets and watch TV instead of play outside, it is a shame.

That really makes sense, or I can't understand why a little boy would want to go home instead.

@LadyDuck Looking back, those tablets and Youtube clips did save me. One of my kids had a tendency of annoying people for no reason. She didn't know what to do, she didn't like anything. She would ask me to take her to the park, only to ask me to take her back home, then back to the park, etc. over and over. (She would beg me to get her this or that pretty pair of shoes or dresses, or certain piece of clothings, only to refuse to touch them again - and I couldn't return any of those back then.) By the time she was old enough to show an interest in ballet and gymnastic (3YO), I was so grateful for all the time I could sit back and rest. (But I still had to buy shoes and dresses etc which she wouldn't touch the moment she got home... up until the time she moved out as an adult.) When she showed an interest in watching series or movies or certain kids program, I was thanking God profusely. (I did give her a few smacks in the bum but nothing worked with her.)

@YrNemo It also gets him away from all those techy gadgets kids are born with these days. I know they know more about them than I do at that young age. Someday, he'll appreciate what his grandma did for him.

No wonder she looked very determined, with a no nonsense approach!

(Guess she was on the way to see her boyfriend .)

@Nakitakona You will be surprised at how some seniors here are still looking for love in their 70s, 80s etc. The body may be aging with time, but the spirit remains youthful forever.

@YrNemo Is that so? Or it's just fancy thought.