To ignore my 21 month old DS's "whining"?

[AnnieDelores]

DS is apparently an angel at nursery all day. When I pick him up at 5 pm and take him home he morphs into a little monster. Of course I'm happy to play with him, but he refuses to look at books with me, do jigsaws, play with cars, or watch cbeebies with me on the sofa.

If I start to prepare dinner - which i simply have to do some evenings - he tugs at me and starts "pretend crying" with this horribe whining noise demanding food, yet when I give him some he throws it on the floor. All he wants to do is rough and tumble physical play sitting on my back as I crawl around the room or chasing games around the house. Obviously this is fine, for half an hour or so, but it's the end of the day, I'm tired and I can't sustain this for two hours until bath time. Even then, his attention span is short and it's a struggle to keep him entertained in the tub!

Am I being unreasonable to feel frustrated at this? Can I do physical play for an hour then ignore his tugging and whining while I prepare dinner / empty the dishwasher / hang up laundry? What's the best way of helping him to learn to be more independent?

I'm so envious of frends' toddlers who are happy to watch postman pat or play independently on the kitchen floor! god knows what will happen when number 2 arrives!

Thank you, thank you, thank you ladies for the wise words and the giggles.

I hear what you're saying about the over tired issue and I will try letting him nap for as long as he wants too.....within reason! Worth a try.

I will also toughen up and ignore unreasonable demands and offer "wind down" activities only.

Hopefully all will go well until Granny visits again and undoes all my good work!!

Time for another beer. They are only the small stubby French ones :-)

Sleep promotes sleep so,don't shorten his naps. Children who,don't sleep,enough during the day are usually overtired and overstimulated by bedtime and therefore can't get to sleep or become miserable and clingy.

Personally when mine were small I would sit and chat to them quietly for a bit, turn the lighting down and watch a bit of tv with low volume then do bedtime around 6-6:30

Only then would I consider doing dinner for us. I would rather have it later than try to do it with a tired, miserable child.