What does your only child (or child will much older siblings) do at night?

[mamakelly]

I know that's a confusing title, lol. My youngest is 11. I feel like I've let him slip into watching too much tv at night. When my older kids were little, we watched tv on Thursday nights and a movie or two on the weekend. But he's literally watching tv every night and I don't like it. For example, tonight I'm sick and in bed and was just sort of ignoring what was happening downstairs. He's been watching tv since 6pm, so an hour and a half. My next oldest child is 17, so he doesn't have anyone to play with at night, like his siblings all did. He doesn't like sports, so no evening sport practices. He doesn't want to try anything new like a class or something (we just started working with a counselor to try and change this) He's reluctantly bridging from Cub Scouts in March, so he'll have a weekly Boy Scout meeting, and that will help a bit. So if you have an only child or a large age gap like we do, what does that child do in the evening? I'm starting to think I may give him homework or something lol. 

[teachermom2834]

I have a dd who is 10 and the next youngest is 16. Oldest two are away at college and she is the only girl. 

She does watch more TV than the others but not alone. Dh watches a lot with her. We do send her up to her room at 9:00 and dh and I have our adult TV time. She doesn’t go to sleep though. She reads and knits. 

She is very good at entertaining herself. She colors, crafts, reads, etc. She has been on her own a lot. However, she would watch as much TV as we let her and always has watched more than the others. I do feel bad sometimes. I do try to keep her busy but she does love her TV. 

She does not seem to be demonstrating any ill consequences from more lax TV rules. So maybe it is OK? 

I can say homework would make us all miserable. If I was determined not to let her watch TV I would play games or do crafts or read with her. Homework would just not go well here- but she does a lot during the day. 

[gardenmom5]

dudeling would do nothing but play computer games if given the chance.   we have computer controls, and need to install them on the x-box (which is what he did when he couldn't get online.)

reading

puzzles

lego structures/models

homework

games

at this age, 1dd would have been happy to just have a book.  and sometimes dudeling is happy to read, but finding something he likes isnt' as easy.

even now at 14, he's expected to start his bedtime routine (which I am part of) by 8pm, and lights off by 9pm.   

[klmama]

Usually dc attends extracurricular activities, reads, practices music lessons, does artwork, talks on the phone with friends, plays with the dog, or talks to me.  That's been pretty consistent since both older dc moved out.  

 

 

[MercyA]

I have an only child who is 10. We give her two hours of screen time a day to do with as she pleases (games on the iPad, YouTube videos, tv, etc.) Audiobooks and e-books don't count, nor does any tv we watch or games we play together as a family. She's almost always out of screen time in the few hours before bed.

After dinner, she usually is active in the basement for a while. We have a hop ball down there and an elliptical and a mini-trampoline. Then, she has a half-hour of special time every night with my DH--board games, video games, chatting, watching something--whatever they feel like. Then she takes a shower. After that she has about an hour before bed, which she usually spends reading. We do require her to be either in her room or in the schoolroom during that hour. Sometimes she'll do puzzles or crafting or something in the schoolroom instead of reading.

Homework in the evening would cause major unhappiness for all. 😉 

Edited February 1, 2019 by MercyA

[theelfqueen]

My youngest is 13, his siblings are 17 and 23 (not at home). And is often on his own. He participates in some kind of extracurricular almost every evening-

Monday- Scouts

Tuesday - D&D at the library (sometimes Coding Club 

Wednesday - Youth Group (sometimes skips YG for karate)

Thursday - karate

Friday - double karate 

He watchesTV, reads, plays video games, builds legos, writes stories, etc. Sometimes he goes to his brothers' job at Dart Warz for an hour or something with a friend (their favorite meeting place is the library). 

[lovinmyboys]

Is it possible for him to have a friend over for dinner and some play time a few evenings a month? I don’t have that situation, but my ds9 has a friend whose only siblings are 12+ years older and we have him over about once a month in the evenings. His mom has shared that she struggles with keeping him busy in the evenings.

[Shoeless]

10 year old kiddo is an only child.  He reads, plays Legos, has some solo board games he plays, plays with the dog or cat, plays games on his Nintendo, or sometimes watches videos related to his hobbies.  Sometimes we play games together or he talks with his dad about shared interests.  He has a few chores he does at night, too.    

[AK_Mom4]

When DD17 was young, she never was much interested in TV. She would read, draw or play music in the evenings if she didn’t have some sort of evening activity out of the house.

These days, she rarely has an evening that she is not doing something.  When she does have an evening off, we generally watch a mystery or animae series on TV together.

[HomeAgain]

DS is 9.  He watches the hour that the Goldbergs are on, but between dinner, that, and bedtime routine, there isn't a lot of time for evening tv on nights that we're home.  Occasionally while I cook dinner he works on interest-based subjects: coding, language...He is required to be in his room by 8 and lights out by 9.  Recently his big brother gave him a small table, so that currently holds a puzzle he's working on.  He has notebooks, paper airplane kits, lots of library books..they all get used at night in his room.