If you're a Sahp to a toddler what do you do all day?

[Smarshian]

Looking for inspiration. I try to get out once a day to a play group/ soft play/ play date etc. Am trying to reduce screen time to max 1.5 hours a day. DD will be 2 at the end of the month. Also have DS 6 months.
Currently we usually get up around 6, play/read books in bed with coffee/milk. Breakfast 7-7.45ish (I tidy kitchen etc in this time. Bit of screen time 7.45-8.30, get ready for day 8.30-9.30, out to activity, return around 12, lunch, eldest naps til 2ish, then big void to fill til 4.30 when we start dinner/bath/but more tv/bed.
Ideas welcome. She has about 5 min interest in toys, loves crafts/messy play (but I don't!)

Similar. I work weekends. Through the week, we have a morning outing like you. Soft play or mothers and toddlers. Maybe library or park not so much now it's bloody cold. Lunch. DS is encouraged to play with toys or draw while I do a bit of studying. Sometimes he wants a story.

In the nicer months we are loads more active though. Toddler groups then foraging for fruit in afternoon, park or gardens.

Reading this back, I feel like I should do more.

Our routine is:
Up at 5.30 - 6 ISH and we do jobs with varying degrees of "help" - folding washing, emptying dishwasher etc.
Then we get something like Lego or Duplo or train tracks out until it's time to wake the older kids for school at 7.
Then it's a mad round of getting everyone fed, dressed, teeth etc and school run.
After school run he may have 15 - 30 minutes or so of cbeebies while I do a spot of cleaning.
9.30 we go OUT. Somewhere, anywhere, playground, playgroup, soft play, swimming.
11.30 lunch
After lunch I try to get out again, or we do play dough, baking, bubbles, dinosaurs, books, jigsaws, dens, painting. Whatever. I have made a list and he chooses from the list (pictorial list).
He may nap. If he doesn't he gets a bit more of cbeebies as quiet time while I try to regroup my sanity. Maybe up to an hour but rarely.
Then school run.
Then cbeebies goes back on again while I cook tea
No more screen time after tea until bed though. After tea we try to do family activities like Lego, board games, but it gets hard with the toddler as he's normally getting tired.
7pm bath and bed for toddler.

So he may have had anything from 30 minutes to 2 hours of screen time. On a bad day it will be 3 hours as I may have had to hand him the phone to do school run to stop the screaming.

In the colder months I generally stay in with my DS, we play games and I spend a lot of time just chasing him around the house pretending to be a monster (and he pretends to be Spider-Man/iron man etc to 'defeat' me) we do go out for walks when I need to take the dog out but I try to keep indoors when possible as I can't cope in cold whether! Last week I bought a load of new pencils/felt tips and colouring books and those learning numbers and letters books as something else to occupy him plus some sticker books. Like you, I loathe messy play/paints etc so the colouring books are my alternative that and they keep my DS interested for ages.
I also pack him off to my mums house once a week so he has a different environment and different toys (and I can clean the house/wrap presents/do nothing!)
I'm not particularly bothered about screen time and limiting it, we generally have the tv on in the background all day so he just watches when he pleases, it's not a novelty so when he gets bored of whatever's on he'll get up and do something else. The only time he watches tv for longer than half an hour is when it's getting closer to bedtime and he's too tired to play. I sometimes wish I had a child that wanted to sit and watch tv all day, I'd get a lot more work done during the day if I didn't have to keep stopping and starting to entertain him with my 'silly dance'!

Soft play loads, swimming but that will be hard with 2 and parks

And tiddlekicks on a Saturday

I think I found it easy over the summer as if we were getting a bit of cabin fever we would just wander to the park etc but it's so bloody cold I rarely fancy it.
What sort of games/ activities are you all doing in the house to entertain them?

I did used to like messy crafty stuff, but as well as that I made a list of stuff to get out:

Play doh
Jigsaws
Duplo
Set up teddies tea party
Play with dried beans
Bath for fun

I got some nice ideas from theimaginationtree.com/

Oh and Happyland.

Going out to collect leaves and then make a picture with them. Even if you just collect the leaves it occupies some time.

I try and do tidy crafts if she wants them out (most of the time) and I can't be bothered with the tidying. We do the magic water painting books, crayons/pencils, stamps, stickers probably other stuff but it's too early to think

We usually fill that time by playing around the house, she especially likes reading books or playing with her teaset and dolls.

She sits in the highchair (while I make dinner or sort out the kitchen) and does colouring, playdoh, painting or mixing.

We build a den in the sitting room and read books in it.

We put music on and do singing and dancing, or sing nursery rhymes and do the actions.

If it's the stickiness you hate about messy play try den-building or other more constructive play instead? String sheets/throws up from washing lines tied across rooms or just drape across chairs.... Use clothes pegs to fix them. Add soft toys as characters or inhabit them with playmobil. Sometimes needing to work out the way to do things like this kept me busy too, and stopped afternoons seeming do endless.
Set up a shop or kitchen using boxes and household items.
We used to sit in the bath together and do pouring and splashing and singing when really pushed.
Play-dates with friends?

Get up at 7ish, breakfast etc. Dressed and then out - baby group, soft play, park, swimming, pets at home 😂😂 although usually have one day a week wherr we stay in and potter. Then home for 12 for lunch and nap. Wakes about 2.30-3 then we go for a walk bundled up, do arts and crafts, puzzles, baking, sticker books, anything he can join in with he likes tbh. Days out to the farm etc when the weathers good. Then a 45 min bit whilst I do dinner with toys and cbeebies on and he helps with the prep.

Up between 7:30-8:30. Usually a group or class in the morning after breakfast and getting dressed.

Sticklebricks, duplo, happyland, orchard games, baking/cooking, paint, play doh, drawing, cutting and sticking (although he's a bit young for this) stickers, bike/scooter ride, gruffalo hunt, go for a walk in the woods or to see the boats on the marina/canal, walk to my parents house, library, walk to the shops, den building, puddle search.

Some days are harder to fill than others.

I was out whnever and whereever possible, as oldest just couldn't bear being indoors. Got him a cheap rainsuit and we would go out in the rain, let him jump i puddles for hours etc.

Library, go for a walk, go food shopping in large supermarket.

I’m watching this thread like a hawk. I work p/t and am 14w pg with DC3. DD is nearly 3, DS is 14mo and I’ve found my past two days flying solo with them hard; one is a bolter, one is starting to walk.

@ABitCrapper your days sound similar to mine. How old is your DC? And does he or she walk?

Magic water painting books! My nearly 2 year old loves them and it means at worst there's a bit of spilt water to clean up (although I purchased some non spill paint pots which reduce that risk)

I also save toilet roll tubes, lolly sticks from magnums, glittery birthday cards, wrapping paper etc and let the 2 year old loose with some strips of sticky tape sometimes.

I also have a 6 mo, I understand how you are feeling, we spent nearly all summer outside but at this time of year it's just so much effort to get both of them into multiple layers of clothes only for one/both of them to scream and whinge the entire time we are outside.