What do you do with your toddler all day?

[RhubarbFool]

Ds 2 is 15 months, and I've been at home with him all the time till now. Am just starting to do some freelance work again and will have a babysitter come 15 hours a week so I can get some work done during the day instead of having to do everything at night when the boys are in bed.

With ds1, I started working again earlier - gradually, but from when he was about 10 months. I adore ds2, he's gorgeous and so sweet and funny, but I'm finding it increasingly hard at home. A mixture of exhausting and boring. It's hard doing housework and keeping an eye on him at the same time, and his attention span is so short, he gets bored after about 30 seconds when I try to play with him. All he really wants to do is push buttons on the remote control / turn the stero on and off

I feel bad because I'm sort of longing for the time it gets easier but obviously don't want to wish the time away and there's so much that's adorable about him and this age.

It's poured with rain since yesterday which hasn't helped; usually I try to make sure we get out and about.

But I would be interested to know what you all do with your toddlers and if you have successful activities you do with them, or if you just sort of muddle through a day of keeping them out of danger and getting the washing/cooking done, as I seem to be doing.

[lljkk]

I "do" a lot of toddler groups. If I time it right, my day goes:

school run
shop errands
toddler group
toddler sleeps and I get stuff done at home in peace!
tot wakes, muck about together
school run
jobs in the run up to tea and bed

[OnEdge]

I do loads of groups too, I know it sounds lazy, but I can sit back a bit and have a brew and a chat while they get on with it. I used to feel guilty because I did not go round the group helping my daughter paly, but it was good because she learnt self absorbed play, and is happy to run off and meet new freinds now.

[meandjoe]

At that age I took my ds to toddler groups a lot because like you I found utterly boring and knackering being at home! I still feel like that sometimes (ds is 2.10) but he is a little better at not trying to climb everything so I can do the cleaning with him 'helping' rather than watching him making sure he didn't fall to his death.

I found finger painting pretty good for them at that age, makes a lot of mess but if you sit tham at a table covered with plastic sheeting, either strip them off to their nappy and vest or put an apron over them then damage can be contained!

I read to my ds a lot at that age, not that he always sat still, he often wandered round the room whilst I read to him but it made me feel like I was 'doing' something with him.

DS was obsessed with water and pouring at that age too, used to give him the washing up bowl on the floor, and some plastic cups (again the plastic sheeting comes in handy here too!) with a bit of water and let him splash about and pour water through a funeel etc.

Tough age really cos they are not babies but have no idea how to entetain themselves or about safety.

I found getting out just to friend's family at that age prevented us both from getting bored and winding eachother up. A lot of it is just trying to fill the day as best you can so you don't go insane. Sorry I can't be of more help!

[ShinyAndNew]

Pretend play with My Little Pony mainly.

She washes up in her toy kitchen when I am doing the washing up and likes 'cleaning' with a bowl of soapy water, if I am busy.

We walk the dog just after lunch and that takes up an hour.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Feed + breakfast.
School run.
Toddler group.
Lunch.
Nap (and my chance to do essential chores).
Feed/snack.
Bit of play at home.
School run.
He plays with his big sister (4 yo), often in the garden at the moment.
Dinner.
Bit more play.
Bath.
Feed, teeth clean, bed.

This is the routine for 3 days a week. The other 2 his sister is at home as well, and we vary a bit in what we do.

[jellybeans]

basically

school run
snack
play or toddler group/library/park
lunch
nap
school run
play
tea
bath
bed

Maybe a bit of housework and seeing friends/family here and there. Am never bored and always busy (DS is no 5).

[paddypoopants]

I found the period between 12 and 18 months really exausting with my ds. He needed watched all the time, didn't nap for more than 40 minutes and activities took 30 seconds and then he was bored.
I used to take him out a lot to the shops, or toddler groups or soft play but wet days were awful. I used to give him a big box of clippits and a couple of pans and he used to spend ages transferring them from one to another - riveting I know. Books were good - or going to the library to get a book was even better as it took at least 30 minutes.

[cyteen]

Same as above really - toddler group, swimming, park/playground, soft play, visiting friends with toddlers, local museum (free and good for running around indoors if the weather is bad), occasional trips to John Lewis cafe for scones and exploring.

If we're stuck at home, DS loves 'helping' with washing up, sweeping etc. He's got really into books over the last few months (he's 21mo) and frequently demands a story. We bounce on the bed and play chasing/tickling games. He's also got much more into scribbling lately, which has made life easier - I remember being similarly stuck for indoor inspiration when he was 15mo, but now he will happily sit down and draw or play with his toy cars for quite a while.

Take heart though, there's always lots of muddling. Sometimes if we're both tired and feeling a bit flat, we'll just sit and watch a DVD together for a while and have a cuddle, or he'll entertain himself while I hang the washing out. Sometimes it is frustrating for both of us, but we muddle through and that's fine

[GirlWithTheMouseyHair]

we muddle through too, though handily I have quite a few unemployed actor type friends so we either go out to different parks/coffee shops to meet them or they come to us, and they always seem to come up with new and different fun things to do with DS!

We don't go to any toddler groups, which I feel really guilty about as he doesn't get a huge amount of interaction with children his own age and i get bored just as quickly as he does! Now the weather's half decent though I'm going to take him to more one o'clock clubs

he did spend almost an hour putting dried pasta into a bowl then into a colander then poured on the floor, into the bowl, into colander, repeat ad infinitum

[lovechoc]

swimming, meeting up with one mum and baby at at a time. we didn't do toddler groups really because the few times I did go I never got the chance to sit back and chat with other parents because DS was either hitting another child or grabbing toys so it was not relaxing for me...

Go walks, meet friends, relatives etc was about as much as I did in those days. Reading and letting DS play with toys. When the weather's nice, there's always the garden too. Oh and the play park where you'll meet other parents and it's free.

[tortoiseonthehalfshell]

Is he walking? There was a period around then for us, just before mine walked, where she was horribly clingy and hated the fact that she couldn't walk, and it was awful. But she's 18 months now and a strong walker, so we:

Spend a LOT of time in parks. She's more confident out of doors, so I get a takeaway coffee and sit in the park while she goes on the slide a lot. She still needs quite a bit of help, but it's better than nothing. I can kill a good couple of hours this way.
Book/clothes/toy shops with kids play areas. The novelty of the new toys keeps her amused the way ours don't.
Children's library - this is where i found out about Mumsnet, I was slouched on the couch browsing the Parenting shelf while she rifled through the book boxes, and found the Toddler's Guide. Again, can kill up to an hour.

I try and stay out from 9 to 12ish, then home on the bus, quick lunch, and by then she's so exhausted she'll take a 2+ hour nap. If I let her nap earlier it's 30-45 minutes, so keeping her awake as long as possible is key. If I do it right she napped 1-3, then there's only 3 hours till her Dad comes home. Books, crayons, etc.

Also, by 15 months I tried really hard to get her involved in tasks. Someone on here convinced me to let her help bake muffins and things, and it's brilliant. I let her knead bread dough, give her a cloth if I want to wash windows, the more she thinks she's helping the better. And at 18 months, after several months of this, it's paying off; she's actually sometimes more help than hinder, and she's so so so proud of herself, it's lovely.

[MrsJohnDeere]

breakfast etc
school run
toddler group, go to friends house (or have to us), soft play, errands, or just household drudgery, depending on day of the week, mood etc
school run
lunch
playing (inside or out depending on weather and mood)
playground, often with ds1's pre-school friends, unless pouring with rain
playing (making cakes, playdough, drawing if wet)
tv/dvd whilst I cook their dinner
dinner
bath, teeth, stories, bed

I did lots of classes, swimming, library trips, swimming etc when ds1 was a toddler. I've done far less of that with ds2, and he has had to fit in with me a bit more.
I have one blissful morning a week now where he is looked after by a nanny for the sake of my sanity!

[RhubarbFool]

Thanks everyone - for ideas and for making me realise it's not just me and it can be tough to be stuck at home (bc of pouring rain) with a little one

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

It is hard at that age, DS is now 23mo and it's much easier.

We go to classes on 2 days and normally do either lunch and/or coffee with friends on those days too so we are either at someone's house or else have got people here.
One other day a week is often spent seeing relatives or other friends who live further away.

Days at home usually go roughly like this

Breakfast
Back upstairs to get dressed, he 'helps' me with jobs and plays with some direction or intervention from me
Park/train set/drawing/shopping/sandpit in the garden
Lunch
TV and story time
Nap (I exercise and MN get jobs done at this point)
Playtime/garden/drawing/lego/'helping' me with jobs
Dinner
Stories
Bath and bed

He is very good at amusing himself though, if I set up his train set or get out the lego then he will play for maybe half an hour as long as I'm in and out of the room.
I guess we just muddle through really. I try and read to him for 30-45 minutes a day spread over the day, and we spend a lot of time chasing each other round the house and hiding behind curtains etc

[toccatanfudge]

he's a 3rd child so I practice benign neglect