To find playing difficult

[kitkey]

My two DS are 2 (yesterday) and 3.4 and I find playing with them so difficult most of the time. I set their train track out, the duplo, the garage and cars etc and they play with it with me for 5 mins an then fight over something and break up the creation and go of doing their own destructive house destroying game. I get out craft stuff and they just mess about after a while. We do puzzles together which is a success but I get bored too so just often take them to park or playgroup as they make so much mess at home and don't seem occupied for me to get on with jobs and I get tense. Is this normal or am a terrible parent. Am expecting a DD is September -maybe she will be calmer and like playing with me.

It's got nothing to do with their gender, it's a problem of age! I have a DD and a DS and we are a year ahead of you and they were like that at that age. Don't worry, they grow out of it. Just don't expect their concentration spans to be very great.

I feel much the same as you! My 2 boys are now older (3 and 5) and as such will play together quite a lot which makes life easier but their attention span is still not great and certainly at the age you describe they would do exactly what you say in your op. Also (and I am sure I am not the only person who thinks this) playing with small children is (shock horror) pretty boring isn't it?

I did as you - took them out a lot - park / soft play / toddler groups / other local child friendly places. Now we still need to go out for at least am or pm (used to be both) and play the rest of the time - sometimes them together and sometimes with me - lego / cars / trains / games / puzzles all much more fun now that they have longer attention spans. They also play endless imaginary games - school / pretending to be their friends / police etc. So give it a year and it will get better but I get where you are at!

Do you have a garden or a park nearby? I find that being outside helps.

IMO small children need at least some outdoors time every day; I learned this the hard way after far too long spent trying to entertain them in the house. They need to run around and yell a lot, preferably get really filthy and at least one person needs a minor injury like a scraped knee. Then they're happy to play at home with Lego/ dolls house etc for MUCH longer periods having run off all their excess energy. (DS is 7 and DD 3 BTW)