My toddler doesn’t do enough activities?

Boys look fairly cute too.

OP you are doing more than enough.

Reading this makes me feel extremely grateful I am not bringing up a toddler at the moment and makes me want to issue an "in my day ....." type of statement

Learning to swim=useful. Playgroup,nursery, seeing friends etc = essential. Being fleeced for almost anything else and feeling like the very full schedule and nice family activities you have outlined is not enough= stupid level of social pressure.

I feel very old and will go and have a little lie down now.

Totally this and they need to go at their own pace too, not be squished in to too many structured classes at that age. They have a lifetime ahead of them for that. Trust your own instincts op!

Says who

Sounds like enough to me

I'm not in the uk but I find the swimming lessons my son is doing (at almost 5) is something you could skip. It's fun and gets them enjoying the water, but they only do glides and haven't started strokes yet. So if money is tight I'd wait till he's atan age where they're learning more.

Sounds like a competitive parent. Every kid and every family is different. If you’re happy and your kid is happy then all is fine. Kids do need to be active but things like playing or a walk or going to the swings are enough. If you think an activity looks like fun, provides a positive environment for you and your kid, and you’re happy to spend the time and money on it then go for it. But if you don’t want to and you are happy as you are then don’t worry. I would say that my kids have absolutely zero memory of any activities they did at that age and they have probably made zero difference to their development or abilities as they got older but I made some lovely mum friends so I am glad we did them. Also you are at toddler class so you are doing an organised educational activity so I wouldn’t even say you don’t do anything.

If competitive patent is getting under your skin I’d probably try and avoid them or if you have to talk with them just smile and nod and don’t take it personally. Some people are just like that. I don’t think they mean to make feel you are doing a bad job but they somehow make you feel that if you are doing things differently to them you are doing things wrong.

Another one saying he's fine OP!

My DD didn't start preschool until she was 3, and before that we went to one toddler group, once a week, and that was it! DS started preschool at 2.5 but he also only went to the same toddler group once a week. We also went to the park, shops, library, nature centre, beach, soft play, etc.

They're 10 and 6 now and still only do minimal activities compared to some kids (swimming lessons and Brownies/Beavers, plus one after school club each).

just so you can waste your money? Toddlers just need to be active, and they often like being active with other toddlers, but it doesn’t have to be in some kind of structured activity. Personally, I think the less structured the better. Particularly as it relates to running through a wood, getting to pick up leaves and explore etc.

Mine started swimming lessons at that age. I can't swim myself though so couldn't teach him. He also did football but that was because I needed to tire him out. Neither were necessary though

That's ridiculous, there is plenty time for activities when they get a bit older, I would say at least 4-5. If he is in nursery 4 days a week it will be much more beneficial for him to spend the time with you.

My toddlers didn’t do any of those things! Playgroup a couple of days a week, playing at home, playing outside, going for walks, doing daily chores/shopping with me. Occasional trip out to something at the weekend

Lol as a mum of 3 this made me laugh. DS3 is the most chilled of my kids probably because he got taken everywhere including shops, school runs, park trips, soft play, to watch his elder siblings swimming lessons because I had no alternative but to take him.

OP toddlers as someone who works with kids I can say toddlers do not need structure activities like rugby etc. The only real structured activities my kids ever got a toddlers was there swimming lessons but they were one to one and tailored to them. DC1 and DC2 still struggled to learn to swim whist DC3 is like a fish in water. Your doing a great job from the sounds of it.

The only thing that was important to me for my older girls and my current 4 year old was/is swimming lessons.

My 4yr old does her swimming lessons and that’s it for weekly classes. We do ad hoc stuff as and when they turn up. We do loads of ‘activities’ though as a family. Outdoor stuff, craft things etc.

Rubbish. Nursery is one long toddler class - they do art, games, exercise, play and socialising literally all day. When your toddler isn't there it's enough for them to have time with you.

At 2.5 my ds went to nothing structured- he did nursery 2 days, my mum looked after him 1, preschool another and me the last. I took him to an under 5 stay and play at the library.

My dd started gymnastics at 2.5, but she's very different! She goes to a specific music and movement group once a week, and a nature tots thing another day.

Absolutely not necessary at all. Sounds like he's doing plenty. I had one child who started an activity at 2 that they love more than anything and still do at 9, but mostly at that age it's just to fill time and sometimes not worth the cost. Don't worry about it at all at this age!

Swimming classes at this age aren't really swimming classes, they are kids being bobbed about by their mothers in the pool with few songs and a bit if splashing. You aren't missing out in anything by taking him yourself. My kids didn't really interact with any of the other kids in the class until much later. As a pp has said, the class was more for me to fill my day and get me out of the house.

The sort of activities he needs are - someone talking to him, someone playing with him, someone reading to him and someone taking him to the park. No one needs rugby tots!

Oft fuck that. I see all my child's friends mum's running the kids off to do tennis, footy etc and I just wonder why they can't just go home and relax.
People have been sucked in to thinking they just do all these classes and they absolutely don't! Maybe when the child is older and can decide for themselves

OP...all this 'children must have twenty thousand structured activities' is a fairly new, utterly ridiculous, money making scam!

Ask ANY parent of a child born pre-2000 (or possibly ANY parent with a modicum of common sense now!)

Read to your children, take them to the park and spend time in the outdoors with them. Teach them to swim. Kick a ball around with them. Clubs are not a 'requirement'...they are 'optional extras...if you want' 👍🏻

I work 4 days a week and do Mini Movers (dance) with my just turned 2 DD on a Friday. She's one of the youngest (pre school) and she loves it - the best thing is her learning all the words to the songs and her language is really coming along. DH does swimming with her on Sundays as he missed out on all the groups during mat leave. Apart from that we make it up as we go along!

My now 13 year old DS didn’t like baby/toddler groups/classes pre school so we didn’t do them. He still remembers fondly the walks into town to get a magazine and sitting in the local cheap cafe to get a sandwich with me. The highlight of his first birthday was riding in a trolley on those travellator things in the supermarket. Not doing such classes has made no difference at all to him now.

Save your money for school trips and afterschool clubs
you have a lovely set up

Let me guess, someone's 2 year old is already fluent in 3 languages and working towards grade 8 piano or something (and that's in between lectures for their engineering degree). It's all BS. I think I sucked my thumb and watched Trumpton in my spare time at 2.