19 month old struggling with transition

[EG88]

Our 19 month old is extremely calm and very loving little guy however increasingly I notice how hard he is finding some transitions and I want to be sure I'm handling things properly after a comment was thrown my way that I'm struggling to let go of.
He is generally great with transitions that are part of his routine however if we are at the park, for example, he loves to put leaves in the bin and when it is time to stop and go home he can get extremely upset and will sob his heart out. I feel he is to little for me to be giving him a timed countdown to when we leave so my strategy has been to have a bag of sensory toys and I just tell him we are leaving and give him one to distract him and talk him through the leaving procesd, "I can see you are sad to go but your tummy will be ready for lunch. We will come back tomortow etc." Basically trying to keep things really positive and distract him from becoming very upset. I thought for his age and stage this was ok until someone commented recently that I was building up an expectation that you get a fun toy as soon as you show meltdown warning signs. I know this is not the case but it did upset me though I am perhaps giving it to much thought. I suppose I'm just looking for reasurance that this strategy is ok to use or to hear from anyone with other ideas that might work.

I have 4 children, the youngest is 2 and I think your approach sounds good. You do what you can to make things easier with children at that age.

Also, babies and toddlers often have unpredictable tantrums - and you can be doing everything right and you end up just having to pick up a screaming baby and leave if you don’t have time for them to calm down.

Honestly nothing wrong with it. My daughter used to scream the park down if we tried to leave so we used to give her a 'biccie' (biscuit) so she would get in the buggy happily.
She's nearly 4 and we certainly don't need to do that anymore. When we leave I always explain what type of fun we will have at home. As she's got older the biscuit has been replaced with an explanation about what we will be doing next.
It's only when they are too small to comprehend what you are saying because they are devastated about their fun time being cut off that I think its fine to appease them with toy/snack.
Of my daughter had a tantrum at home about something she wouldn't get a biscuit, you can distract /talk a child more easily at home than you can out and about.
Hope that makes sense!

I think if you were to produce a brand new toy every time he had a meltdown then it might be an issue.

But if you're using toys that he can presumably choose to play with at any other time then I don't think he'll make the connection "if I have a meltdown I get a toy!"

I think your approach sounds good. Our LOs are roughly the same age and mine also struggles with transitions especially leaving the park!

One thing I've started doing is setting a timer (the oven timer) it makes me look a bit weird at the park but it really works. I say e.g we have 5 mins left, watch me set the timer. Then he can see/hear the time ticking away and when it goes off he usually comes, then we have crunchy snack in the pushchair on the way home.

He is wising up to it now but I've also found that letting him bring something from the park helps. He also loves leaves, moss and sticks so we usually bring some of that with us.