[HeroOfCanton]

It's what DD does while I sit on EB
oh, and do housework, cook, go to the toilet alone, etc etc...

[steppy]

I actually have seen quite a few kids who don't do unstructured play very much. They are either in front of the tv, the playstation or sitting next to mum while she talks to other adults and mum (or dad) has to do EVERYTHING with them. They can't play for 5 minutes without screaming MUM or DAD. So I do understand the OP's question. I know way too many parents who found unstructured play just too difficult.

[amanda79]

We I practice benign neglect. They have to amuse themselves.

Yup, me too.

I think at their dad's house his version of benign neglect is letting our 5 and 3 y/o watch MA15+ movies and PS3 with him.

My kids yesterday were playing "teachers and mothers" with each other for about 2 hours, while I did housework, read a book and knitted. It was very cute.

[happygurl06]

DD has no structured activities outside of school/homework.

[Lokum]

I actually have seen quite a few kids who don't do unstructured play very much. ... So I do understand the OP's question. I know way too many parents who found unstructured play just too difficult.

Agreed. It's almost socially iffy to let your kid just wander about by himself in our area/MG. And I by wander about, I mean stray more than a metre or two from your mother.

DS fell off something the other day. (He was fine.) I know I got a whiff off 'well, if she will ignore him, it WILL happen,' from the other two mothers I was with. They of course were hovering beneath the play equipment ready to catch their little ones, while I gossiped in their ears.

As it turned out, another kid had pushed him. Life IS going to happen, and I can't be there with the safety net all his life.

That does seem to be the current action plan of his peers' mummies though.

[ShoshieRu]

I like the description of benign neglect too

My kids have lots of unstructured playtime. DS loves to dig in his 'sandpit' (read: an old vege patch full of mud). DD would be happiest if she was left alone for hours to jump on her trampoline, preferably with a hose running full bore (ahhhh, water restrictions!), wearing some weird get up which always seems to include gumboots.

DD is nearly 8 and collects everything - I mean EVERYTHING. Old sorbet containers. Kitchen paper rolls. Boxes, paper clips, old toothbrushes, which she then uses to make 'creations' which have no rhyme nor reason to my adult eye.

DS is nearly 3 and at the moment his constant refrain is 'play a me?' but I find if I sit down with him for 5 or 10 minutes, get him started, then he's happy as larry to continue on his own.

I justify all this from an article I read years ago which said that parents often 'ruin' children's games with our constant reality testing and lack of imagination. I certainly know that I can't get into the spirit of being a superhero with an airplane eye mask, rubber gloves and one of my bras as a hat. I try, but it fizzles pretty quickly.

I also notice that when the kids watch too much TV they are harder to get to play on their own.