Do you play with your kids all the time? My son (5) has a hard time playing independently. Anytime he has his cars out, he wants one of us to play with him. I know it’s important to have your children play independently, however it makes me feel guilty saying no. What’s the middle ground here?
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Do you have play dates with children from his,I’m assuming kindergarten class??.. get to know the other mamas and daddies from school or church… y’all can have coffee, snacks, wine… whatever… while the babies play…
I explained alone time. It’s important for her brother 
. But now at 6 she openly tells me when she wants alone time. She goes and makes a fort with snacks and the tablet while her brother plays video games and I clean. Would be a good use of screen time. Use it for like an hour of independent play/relax time. It really helps with overstimulation throughout the day.
When they were little I did…
But once they were all able to independently then they all played with each other
No, my 8 year old daughter still has a hard time with this. She wants mom and dad to play with her and doesn’t like it when we want/need her to play alone.
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Just play with him because eventually you’ll be too boring to play with or he’ll too cool to be seen with you. Play with him as long as possible and cherish those moments. Once they get to a certain age they’re too cool to hang out with us or play with us. Trust me when I say that too. I know
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Do it sometimes and others explain why you can’t. Sometimes o make up a game when cleaning like find me all the red cars and count how many there are for me
I go back and fourth play for a few and then go back to what i am dojng or i involve my 4 year old. To help with whatever i am doing
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I play about 15-20 minutes them say you keep playing I have to flip the laundry or load the dishwasher, or whatever chores needs done. Then I check back every 5 minutes then 10 minutes, hey your doing great. Then after 20 minutes I stop what I am doing and play again. I do those over and over with shorter times until I can say, hey grab your toy and we will set it up and then I know I can step away and come back over and over and they learn how to play by themselves.
I’d say make the time to play with him, as often as possible, because one day he isn’t gonna want to spend time with you like that.
However, it’s not always feasible to play with your child every time the request it.
I would suggest setting aside some time, each day, for play time. Say, dinner, bath, snack, 30 minutes of play time with Mom/Dad before bed.