Home days with toddler

[liklypaddy]

Since my son has been mobile, I've tried to go out every day with him come rain or shine. We rarely have a day where we stay at home all day and don't leave the house.

I will admit that this started due to having been in an abusive relationship with his dad. I was always scared he would turn up at the house and do something awful, so the time out of the house was my safe time. I don't feel like this anymore, thankfully.

I've always put pressure on myself to do something outdoorsy every day. I'm starting to realise that it's ok to stay home sometimes and that quite frankly, I'm exhausting myself and have unrealistic expectations. Probably stems from my own childhood where we rarely stayed home, didn't have a tv etc.

Can anyone tell me about what they do when they're at home with their toddler? I'm not talking about arts and crafts etc, I'm looking for some proper lazy ideas. I need some chill time occasionally but also need my son (21 months) to be entertained!

Honestly the majority of home days consist of my son entertaining him with his toys. If he seems a bit lost I'll say let's build a dinosaur Park (with duplo and animals) or might set up a Teddy bears picnic. I rarely do stuff that creates mess as he only ever plays with these things for 2 minutes so it's not worth it. I love doing puzzles with him and reading books. If you have a garden you could get things like a sand pit and play house so you can have fun outside with no effort!

We don't have a garden, sadly, but hopefully will soon once we move

There’s a few Instagram accounts with lots of brilliant ideas. I like Five Minute Mum as her ideas don’t take longer than five minutes to set up

It depends really. I go through phases with DD and (particularly in spring/summer) find two outings a day (morning and post-nap) an easier way to parent. She’s nearly three now. If we’re at home I’ll happily read to her endlessly, but if she wants pretend play or stickers or whatever I’ll do it for 5-10 minutes and then invent a job for myself in the kitchen. “Washing up” on a chair in front of the sink with bubbles is a bit hit too. She also watches anything up to an hour of tv a day, in little chunks.

Movies
Duplo blocks
Train set
Tunnel/tent etc
Big cardboard boxes
Musical instruments
Ride on vehicles
Skittles
Toy boat/sledge
Magnadoodle
Jigsaws/shape sorters

It’s perfectly reasonable to just let your toddler play with their toys alone sometimes, it’s actually good for them & there independent playing skills. They don’t need 24 hour entertainment.

I’m much like you, take my 2 (3 & 1) out practically every day, because the fresh air does us all good & honestly I find them easier when out. But on days where I’m feeling really tired, or need to get stuff done, I just leave them to it!

They have an abundance of toys & it’s not neglect to just leave them to play! Or stick a film on, or let them watch the tablet...

We also don’t have a garden, which is tough because allowing them outside without actually going out would be easier.

Magic sand & play doh are things they do alone, or I fill their kitchen sink up with water and just let them wreck their bedroom ‘washing up’ 😂 when they’re bored of ‘normal’ toys.

Hi OP, here are some things I do with my 21 month old:

-Bottom shelf of bookcase is filled with her books and a few old DVD’s and she plays at pulling them all out and looking through them
-sticker books / magic water pen books
-playing with a bedsheet (make a tent, peep out from under it, not v relaxing but she runs at me and I whizz it over both our heads to ‘catch’ her)
-old handbag with safe things for her to take out and play with like an old purse with bits of folded up paper in the card sections
-books (lift the flap, puppet books, noisy sound books etc)
-puzzles
-pop up tent (£8 from argos, hours of fun)

• dustpan and brush for sweeping

-duplo

Lots of the above found second hand on Facebook or bought cheaply.

Oh, and lots of Peppa/Ben and holly/Mr Tumble! She will also happily spend half an hour bringing me bits of washing from the washing machine and putting things back in item by item so that’s how I get my morning coffee! X

I'm exactly the same, I try to force myself out with DS daily. For a while I joined a group with ideas for play with toddlers and that made me feel even worse because everyone was setting up activities for their babies using tuff trays and whole play scenarios with different materials and all. I didn't understand why my son wasn't interested enough to play for more than 3 minutes (maybe because he was 15 months old )

Anyway. I just leave him to it now most of the time. If he's bored he'll pull out some toys or puddle in the sink or ask for the telly on.

Yes you can absolutely have a day at home. I’m sad you actually felt scared to do this before. Usually on homey days we ...
Do some cooking of baking
Arty crafty things
Throw all Sofa cushions of floor and bounce around
Play with toys
Do some cleaning ( they’re shit at it but involved and learning it’s part of being responsible)
Build dens
Watch movies or tv
Read stories
Draw pictures

I do like to get out most days too but I really appreciate downtime and cozy relaxing days at home with the kids.

When you have a garden, you could fill a wooden box with some dirt and put a spade and some small plastic pots in there. I let DS play at planting 'seeds' (out-of-date sunflower seeds) and it keeps him busy for ages. He also buries his plastic dinosaurs in there.

Inside the house, you can get road tape for wooden and tiled floors. DS loves it when we make a road circuit on the floor and he pushes his cars around it for ages.

Bubble bath. (Or just plain water). Mine could play for hours in the bath if I let them. We had plastic sea creatures, pots, foam letters, watering can etc in there.

We got out most days for a walk though. It helped them sleep.

Yes bath time or fill a washing-up bowl with water and chuck in some plastic cups /bath toys. Endless fun!
Get them to "help" - plonk him in the laundry basket with all the socks to pair up, let him push the hoover (or buy his own toy hoover), give him a duster, let him help with dinner by mixing, chopping (with supervision obvs).
Read books
Set up different toys - get all the dinosaurs out and play with those, then later get all the toy cars out, then later the toy kitchen - kind of gives a new/different focus.
Nothing wrong with a couple of episodes of Hey Duggee or whatever.
Singing songs/dancing (my 3yo always does my zumba home workout with me)
Baking and decorating cakes/biscuits (messy).
Just let the toddler potter about while you chill out. I'm quite lucky that my 3yo plays independently well. Hoping the baby turns out the same!

My son is nearly four but has been content to just play with his toys since he was about 18 months. I just let him play - I join in if he wants me to or if I want to (can’t leave play doh alone) - but there’s nothing wrong with just having toys out or doing a puzzle together. Or sticking a movie on. DS has learnt tons from watching Blaze and the monster Machines or Mickey Mouse clubhouse. Or just a movie. He takes it all in and we talk about it.
I also got a tuff tray from eBay for about £12 and it’s been awesome. Can do play doh in there or painting or put his duplo in it.

We had DVDs of songs to dance too (with children bdoing the dances). Rainy day exercise.

Afternoon bath time is normally pretty successful , I put a sieve in it , a ladle
, a bowl and any other safe items I find around the house for him to play with in the water

Have a look at five minute mum on Instagram.

I always went out when my son was that age too. Trickier just now as soft plays and toddler groups are closed.
Don't mind having the odd day at home now my son is a bit older and much better at playing with toys by himself.