How much time do you spend playing with your child

[Debsy1234]

I'm interested to know what others do. I spend an hour playing with my DD in the morning, about 20 mins mid morning and an hour in the afternoon. I read books with her in the evening. I feel like a sloppy mum when I leave her in her ball pit to play or jumperoo while I sit and have a cuppa. I know some people would sit on the floor for hours just playing but that thought bores me lol.

My DD is 8 months.

[Enjoyingthepeace]

You "play" with 8 month old for best part of 2.5 hours a day? A whole hour in the morning and afternoon.

What on earth do you do??

Playing St that age was a bit of peek a boo and a few toys. For about fifteen minutes. And then they and I ran out out of steam.

Don't worry. You're doing way more than anyone I know!

[Debsy1234]

Oh god that made me laugh, God knows what I do, I think I've cracked up!

I really feel bad if I leave her to her own devices for more than 20 mins. I know it sounds sillY.

[Bluecarrot]

I encourage independent play with dd (25m). Only definite times are a story time in morning, at nap time and at bedtime. Rest is pretty fluid. If she's doing something fun like play dough, I can spend far longer playing with her than I can pretending to drink tea and eating felt cake. Prob about 2 hours a day excl reading time.
Once they get to the age where they do make believe with dolls and they start saying " and pretend you said xxxx then I said xxxxx" etc then I just invite their mates over more ;)

[poocatcherchampion]

I've given my toddler 2 siblings.

I should have wrapped them up.

I just sit around drinking tea.

[Iguessyourestuckwithme]

If I look at today 2.4 year old and I read books for 15 minutes and then she pottered while I had breakfast, we went to music group - so we chatted while she was in the pram and on the bus, after music group we headed home and she made me "a cup of tea" while I cooked lunch and then she napped. After her nap we went to town we talked about the building site we saw, she helped me buy some bits in town and then I played with her at the park [pushed the swing and stood at the bottom of the slide] then we went to the cafe and she played with some toys while I drank my tea then it was time to go home, we had tea then it was magically 6.30 she played with her doll pram and then we went up for a bath and story.

...

her 8 month old brother went on the swing and had some raspberries blown on his neck at some point in those 10 hours.

[Loulou2kent]

Your doing plenty!! You sound like a lovely parent. Trust me, you can always tell the children who had parents that play along with them too much. There's nothing better than a bit of independent playing. A confident child finding a toy they like & then using their imagination. It's refreshing. (And hilarious when you see them copy something you do or say in real life)

[arabellaandbaby]

2.5 hours is plenty OP! I have never managed to give up to that amount of time to my DC. Something like reading and colouring and doing arts and crafts are fun for parent as well. But when they are pretending to eat felt cake and making cups of pretend tea, I think any parent would struggle to stay focused and say it was fun after even just half an hour!

Independent play helps young DC to develop their own imagination. Don't feel guilty for leaving them for 20 minutes at a time. They need to learn how to fill their time when you are occupied or if you just want to sit down and enjoy a (real!) cuppa yourself!

[MeredithShepherd]

I think I'd be lying if I said I spent any more than an hour a day playing with 25m old ds on non work days. And that time is mainly spent building train tracks so then he can play trains by himself, playdoh, painting or colouring and then story time before bed. He is happy to play alone most of the time so I don't want to ruin that as he is likely to be an only child so needs to get used to it!

[WonderingAspie]

Mine are older but I've never really been the playing type. I just don't really like it. We play games and read, sometimes I'll do crafts with them. They talk at me to death. We drink pretend tea and eat plastic food. I will sit and have a go on the scalextric. I admit I feel guilty about it.

But other than that, no. I agree with a pp, you can always tell the overindulged children who are constantly played and interacted with 24/7. They are quite annoying to be around so don't worry about it.