Trapped Toddler Parents of Winter 2020/21 Support Thread - Puddlesuits at the ready!

[ReallySpicyCurry]

Are you the parent of a small child who doesn't yet sit still for more than five minutes? Do local lockdowns mean there are no baby and toddler groups for miles? Are you sick of walking the same three routes every day since March? Then come and join our support thread! I have started this after some of us had a good moan on a thread in AIBU ("To be worried about staying sane stuck inside all winter with a 2 year old?") because I thought it might be nice to share ideas/activities/general moans and concerns, over what is probably going to be a tricky winter for those of us with babies and toddlers.

Don't forget the answer to all your prayers though... The ever reliable puddlesuit. Puddlesuits are absolutely mandatory this year, and you are expected to wrestle your child into one and make them jump in puddles daily. If your child goes blue with cold, administer a swift dose of hot chocolate and hope your local Amazon delivery driver gets move on with your latest order of kinetic sand/playdough/ball pit/stickers. Failing all else, Peppa Pig is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, in October as in March.

I'm joining here for future lurking. My DD turns 2 next month.

Following! I have a very energetic nearly 3 year old DD and 4 month old DS, dodgy post partum hips and a tiny house in which my husband will be trying to WFH amid the chaos and noise.
At the moment DD loves doing the “washing up”. She stands at the kitchen sink on one of our very heavy/sturdy chairs and I fill it with all the plastic cups etc and a bit of tepid water and soap suds. Keeps her busy while I cook/feed the baby!

DS (22 months) also loves playing at the sink “washing up” or scrubbing potatoes, rinsing chickpeas in the colander etc while I do lunch/dinner next to him.

His favourite thing is a cardboard box - give him pens/crayons/stickers and he’ll sit in one for an hour decorating it and pretending it’s a boat or car, whereas I only get 10 mins out of a sheet of paper on the floor/table. Then once he’s done we turn it into a ramp for cars/balls/rolls of tape/conkers and pine cones to go down.

Joining as I a nearly 2 year old. Great ideas so far thank you

Ahh these are my people. Currently 39 weeks pregnant with a 2 year old. The kid has more energy than Kipchoge on speed and my house is the size of a postage stamp. Currently walks in the woods are a mandatory daily event.

Snap @LassoOfTruth - 3yo DD and almost 4mo DS.

DDs fave is post offices. I give her old envelopes, some stickers, photocopied some stamps, some recipes, her toy till. We made a post box out of a cardboard box (another fun activity!) She is happy as Larry for hours stuffing envelopes and selling second class stamps for £40. Except I have to be Nick (Nick is our postman) which then involves waiting in the downstairs loo with her letters and waiting for her to answer to door. So don’t agree to be the postman whatever you do.

Thanks for all the ideas all! I haven’t gone there with kinetic sand yet but am intrigued! Is it messy? I don’t mind mess but DH Hates sand and small bits with a passion (No glitter in our house!).

Also determined to be outside as much as possible. I got new wellies and waterproof trousers from Decathlon. Wore them today and they’re excellent - proper game changer!

Receipts not recipes

Kinetic sand is the least messy messy play thing I've ever played with! I feel like I'm banging a drum here but rarely has something appealed to quite such a range of people in my house. My teen is now watching asdmr (is that what you call it?) kinetic sand videos on YouTube.

I LOVE the post office idea. We like a post office here too. Poor bloody Nick though

Also love the decorate a cardboard box- something I used to do with eldest but forgot about for youngest.

Hobbycraft have those colour in cardboard space rockets/houses etc for I think £12. I was thinking of getting one for toddler for Christmas.

We've definitely watched more screen time than I feel happy with since March. I am fussy when it comes to screen time so it really annoys me, but at the same time especially back at the height of lockdown there was only so much I could do. I found a really good YouTube channel though, called Super Simple Songs - it has proper animation, puppets, and presenters etc, rather than all that computer graphic stuff that seems to be everywhere now. And they do proper songs and nursery rhymes - it's really nice and not annoying

I've just ordered some road tape.

I like the decorate the card board box idea too. I'll have to put out a request to the family to give me any boxes they have. I have seen the ones in hobby craft too so I might just get one of those. Although Xmas soon so lots of things to be delivered in boxes maybe.

I like Super Simple Songs too. They do a Spanish version, and I try and get DD to watch that sometimes because she was born in Spain and I want her to feel a connection to it.

We've also discovered Bounce Patrol recently on YouTube, a group of real people, not animated, singing nursery rhymes. I can't guarantee you won't find them annoying (I was a bit taken aback by their level of bounciness at first), but some of the songs are quite catchy

I open parcels and envelopes quite carefully. We hunt stuff from round the house and play post offices with them.

Respect to you all.
Mine are past that stage (7 & 9) for which I am immeasurably grateful.
Still plenty of stomping around soggy woods in the rain at the weekends, but at least they do it quicker than half a mile an hour.
And at least I know now that DS1 has ASD and can't tolerate warm clothes. So much easier now he is able to express himself and be his own fault if he gets hypothermia, which he hasn't yet after all these years so I worry far less than I did when he was 2 and impossible to dress without a protracted battle and meltdown from us both... then baby needed feeding/ blew through a nappy... I see my maternal duty is to provide access to appropriate clothing. By 3 I learned to just stick extraneous items like everything in the basket of the buggy

If it's a TV/ dvd day, don't sweat it. DS1 watched a LOT of TV over 6+m when I was heavily pregnant with SPD over a long winter, then recovering from birth injury then the chicken pox month. By then we were at mid-summer and I weaned him off the TV addiction by using a timer and mysteriously being out of the room every day when the TV "broke" to avoid being blamed in the followng meltdown. He's done fine since then, and watching Misty Island Mystery on loop does not actuallu damage infants (shame about their mums...)

I survived. Just. Still use the word "toddlers" to quel any broody urges.
You'll get through this too.

Just joining you from the other thread, another mum of toddler with young baby in tow. I too have lockdown panic purchased tuff tray and pikler triangle. We have a nice garden which is soon to become boggy and a total mud fest. DD not very outdoorsy and I had to lock the back door sometimes this summer to keep her from darting back to our boring living room.

Some amazing ideas here. Loving - kinderkitchen knife, post office game, washing spuds and washing up and animal safari so far. My daughter loves books and being read to basically all day. I like it for a bit but I've found it makes me oddly tired after a while and baby DS has started whinging through them if he's around so I've downloaded the cbeebies Storytime app which actually reads to them and there's a bit of a interactive aspect too. It's a godsend when I'm putting the baby down for a nap and allows me to get quick chores done. I'm screen time fussy too but I make an allowance for this

I was the whirli person to previous PP
I pay £15 a month to get £120 worth of toys at a time and an extra £5 for free deliveries/returns so £20 together. They deliver quite quickly and then when they're no longer played with you take them to the post office or the bigger things I pay £3 for a courier to collect. It's quite extravagant but I've stopped buying toys and I'm quite minimalist as a person so I feel like the house is less cluttered. I'm enjoying it and I get oddly excited choosing new toys although I let DD choose the last set so we are due a delivery with all the Disney princess dolls any day. We've borrowed baby things for DS too and they have gyms and jumparoos

Can I join too please (am awake because I've just finished feeding DS2).

I have DS1 4.5 (half term here, predicted rain every day this week) and DS2 nearly 9m who has decided he's a toddler because he keeps trying to walk

DS1 wants to go to the playground in the rain tomorrow but I'm hoping to distract him with shredded paper (I bought a shredder in the amazon sale)

Following! DD won't wear puddlesuits, so we've got pack a Mac trousers from JoJo Maman Bebe that work brilliantly paired with a winter coat.

@Nancydowns I have a toddler who liked to crayon on furniture. I've take the crayons away for a few days as a 'no' message. But someone bought us window crayons and she loves them. She's only ever drawn on the windows and they wash off incredibly easily. I think it gives her the outlet she needed for graffitiing!

@MessAllOver @ReallySpicyCurry I TOTALLY agree about tuff spot/tray. The best purchase ever! Thoroughly recommend on all 'what shall I buy threads'. We live in a very small house and it's in the garden but I know I can bring it in whenever I need. Also if you get a spare tray (unbelievably our local school has three in a skip) they make perfect kids for the original tray if it's outside as a sandpit.

@FolkSongSweet scones are a great idea! Welsh cakes are being planned in our house too.

@ReallySpicyCurry @MessAllOver sorry that should've said 'perfect lids'. I'm sure we all have perfect kids already 🤪

Following as I have a 2 year old and a 3 month old. Soft play and groups are still open here but I live in fear of them closing again!

I think we need a pre walker support thread too, for the baby that would rather crawl through the puddles rather than jump in them.

Our home is full of builders so I am going crazy trying to keep LO out of the way indoors and getting enough exercise outside.

Great thread idea! 3 year old and 10 week old DDs here. Through March loxkdown we managed better than I expected - mainly due to lovely weather and use of the paddling pool. Worried how we will manage so well when the weather is rubbish, despite being quite happy to get out in the rain etc! At least preschool is (hopefully) still running- we both really missed it last time!

“Still use the word "toddlers" to quel any broody urges”
This, so much this. I’d love another baby, but TODDLERS!

My 2p - kinetic sand marvellous stuff, but, and this is important, don’t buy the cheap knock off stuff. It is not the same.

When your nerves are up to it, big roll of Ikea paper/ wallpaper on the kitchen/easily cleaned floor. Paints for finger painting. And nose painting. And feet painting. And on one unfortunate occasion, bum painting.

And then they can have a bath.

And then they can play ‘washing the kitchen floor’. (Tiny bit of water in a pot & a cloth).

Some great ideas here. I panic bought a wobbel board and a triclimb (pikkler triangle) and they have both been played with a lot. DS was 2.7 at time of lockdown. The other thing that was brilliant was an indoor trampoline. He would bounce in it for ages and tire himself out.

@PolarBearStrength

Ahh these are my people. Currently 39 weeks pregnant with a 2 year old. The kid has more energy than Kipchoge on speed and my house is the size of a postage stamp. Currently walks in the woods are a mandatory daily event.

[sends Hunger Games salute]

Can I just say that if there was a “Public Service” section on MN this should be at the top.

Big props also to the really constructive and informative tone here, especially from the OP. We are in Scotland and it’s already dire weather wise and the amount of marginally depressed local mums on our local mums page told to “just get them out in a puddle suit” with no further info or understanding of their mental state is frustrating.

So thank you lot, I’m scooping ideas for my energy packed 3 year old and walking ASBO 18 month old.

@Twilightstarbright and @kwaziseyepatch talk to me about your Pikler triangles /wobbel boards. Do you think they’re worth it for an almost 2 year old in terms of how much use they get? Any tips on where to get one (Etsy is flooded with them it’s hard to choose), height, do you have a ramp/slide too?