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Why would he think this the main thing to be doing with his kids?
He has, it looks like, a four year old and a toddler. The space the kids and he are in should be relatively child friendly, and then the kids need to be taught not to mess with the outlets or whatever isn't. Four year old and toddler is a bit annoying, because the four year old talks much better than the toddler, making mutual play a bit difficult, but they can still basically interact with each other. They will, of course, need things, but getting food and drinks for the kids every couple of hours and helping them when they need it isn't fundamentally "unproductive."
Admittedly, I do sometimes feel deep focus deprivation while raising three kids and working at an elementary school. but that's the gig.
He can just say no. It's alright to say no to things that would be good for the kids and make himself feel like a good father, if the alternative is resenting said kids.
I like Zvi's take on this. He comes across as a prickly introvert who is glad the he has a wife ad kids, but who thinks it's bonkers that people are pressuring people like him to actively supervise their children all the time, 24/7, and that this is literally causing people not to have children at all. That seems very likely. Sometimes I get along with my kids, sometimes I don't. I don't like playing ball, and never have, that's what school recess is for. I'd be in favor of more recess time for lower elementary, for the kids to throw balls around. If the man's wife feels similarly, the child can be in pre-K, with other kids who want to play.
I do like watching them doing other things, my six year old has taken to cutting out hundreds of tiny books, and making them tiny covers, and tiny paper accessories for her dolls. Even the one year old is kind of amusing to watch, he's been trying out different amusing stretches lately and occasionally instigating chase with me. But if they're nagging about something, even something that would otherwise be good, we have to forcefully reject the nagging, this account of trying to enjoy his coffee, getting nagged at, then eventually giving in and rejecting it is bad. He shouldn't do that. Play ball when the child hasn't nagged you into it.
Some things I've read suggest that American city child raising styles have become absolutely bonkers lately in respect to "gentle parenting," never forcefully rejecting things like nagging or dysregulated outbursts, and this is bad. It's work either way, but in the medium run he probably is setting himself up for bad times if he practices the ignore then feel guilty then give in strategy.
My then-2-year-old daughter got so upset once when she was trying to play with her younger cousin: "[Cousin's name] not listening to me!!!" "Honey, she's 1. She barely understands you." It was short-lived frustration, though.
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