To find playing with my toddler really boring?

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I really enjoy taking him out to places, so we generally go out somewhere every morning on the 5 days a week I'm home with him. I enjoy watching Disney films together and ready books together. I like playing games like chasing him, peekaboo etc. I just find sitting and playing with toys with him so, so dull. I'm not good at imaginative play, and (probably as a result) neither is he. He doesn't have any siblings so he looks to me as his only play partner, and I just hate it. Time literally crawls. But I know this sort of 1:1 play time is so important for his development. Any tips to make it more bearable?

It is boring I worked in childcare for years. Does your dc go nursery or playgroups. Plenty of time for imaginative play there. I'd just do say 15min so your modelling it then let him play and remember imaginary play can be teddies having a tea party or it could be teddies being thrown about or piled on top of each other. So don't worry about it being too structured

I don't play with DD's toys with her thats the point of toys they are for her to play with. I don't entertain her 24/7 either. If you have a trip out everyday, a film, some reading and playing, when can you child be bored? Or play on their own, develop their own imagination etc.

Thanks everyone - some great advice and definitely made me feel a lot better 😊

My eldest is a teenager and just wants to be left to his own devices. Suggested a card game last night but he wasn't for it.

Been there with small DC years ago, but it's such a fleeting time in their lives. Do what feels comfortable for you. Looks like you do loads already OP.

I never did it. I read to her all the time. Helped her set up & reorganise sylvanian family hotel & later dolls house. Baked, did Lego. Chatted about books.
No pretend squeaky voices about dolls or tea parties or whatever. Nope nope nope.
If in doubt or she was needing 1-1 i built a den and played an audio book for her
She's 17 & a joy.

This reminds me of a text from my SIL who moved up to the countryside near us last year when she said "sooooo, what do you do with an 18month old in the rain all day...I'm on day 2 and I'm out of ideas, please help!"
I replied with "go to someone else's house to destroy it"

Absolutely it's dull & mind-numbing & you count the hours til your partner gets back constantly going "is it REALLY only 1pm??" In your head (or not in your head)

you need to club together with other mums and do a round robin of play dates. With wine preferably

'Playing is their job, not ours'

Exactly right. I swear in the 80s parents rarely even took us to activities or the park let alone actually involving themselves in our play. Give kids a chance to immerse themselves fully in a make believe world by leaving them to it every now and then.

I didn’t like doing imaginative play with my children when they were little. I would
bake, play board games, Lego, play doh, go to the park, the beach swimming, read etc etc etc. I sent them to playgroups or granny for imaginative play or “encouraged” then to do it alone, other than accepting the odd
cup of tea from the play kitchen. I think it’s like everything in life - some stuff you like and are good at and some stuff you don’t. When I stopped Giving myself a hard time I became
a better parent.

I never did it. My idea of hell. Doing stuff, fine, mind numbing boring play, no. Thankfully I had twins, I don't think I could have patented otherwise..

Didn't like it either.
So I used to do '121 imaginative play' that involved doing my chores.
Like sorting out a cupboard, doing laundry, food prep, shopping etc

Also, reading the newspaper out loud.

YANBU - time stands still when the toys come out!

I didn't really do imaginative play with mine. I would get toys out, help them set stuff up and build it. But then kind of let DC get on with it while I sat there with a cuppa.

Mine used to play with a lot of duplo that I just used to build. I also used to like building tracks for the toot toot cars to go on. 😃

So dull

Thank goodness, I thought it was just me!

Totally agree, I didn't mind board games or those easy educational maths books for counting etc or a bit of cooking or, very occasionally, crafts. But I never did imaginative play with my DS - that's what playgroups are for. Doesn't seem to have done him any harm - now a 21 year old Uni student .

I think authenticity is important rather than role playing just for the sake of it.
Chlidren will thrive when a caregiver is giving genuine engagement and involvement in an activity.
I never enjoyed role play games, but I did enjoy cooking with my kids- even a 2 the will enjoy rolling out dough, using play or plastic utensils, or guddling about in a sink or bowl with jugs and water.
My toddlers enjoyed gardening too little trowel, watering cans etc, painting together, playing with home made play dough. We enjoyed stories, books, singing, painting, crafts, playing with balls.
I believe having an authentically engaged parent is far more important than a caregiver who is grittng their teeth.
When they were older they my kids enjoyed role play with their friends, but it wasn't for me, and I don't feel bad about that.

I spent 30 mins pretending to be various plastic dinosaurs looking for their mummies today. I felt every single minute tick by.

This happened to me the other day! My preschooler had a friend round and I thought they'd play with each other and we'd have coffee while I also kept an eye on my 18 month old, but the other mum played with them the whole time and followed them round the house so I had to keep scooping the little one up and going too because sitting downstairs while another adult played shops upstairs was too weird a dynamic... I think she thought I wasn't pulling my weight in the childcare but I didn't think that level of childcare was at all necessary.

Wholesome ideas: all manner of sensory play. Trays of pasta/oats/flour in the garden, burying dinosaurs or cars, bucket of water and paintbrush to "paint" the fence etc etc

Less wholesome: go on fb marketplace and buy a whole bundle of characters from his favourite TV show. Mine will recreate episodes of paw patrol on their own for HOURS 😏

Apparently parents doing imaginative play doesn't have any developmental benefit whatsoever and is a relatively recent phenomenon. The benefit is when the child can play imaginatively alone.

I find activities with a purpose and end point much easier. Jigsaws, colouring in, stories, that kind of this.

Imaginative play on the other hand does my head in.

I always made it quite structured and we always built something, we had loads of blocks and used them a lot. So we might build towers, count the blocks and knock them down, we might make a farm using the blocks for houses and fields and then put animals in them and drive tractors around and feed all the animals, plant crops, get the cows in for milking etc We might build a train track (had a wooden one) and make the blocks platforms and houses and have people going to catch the train (or missing it or whatever), or we might make a zoo and the blocks make the enclosures and then feed all the animals and have one escape.

So there was always a bit of imaginative playing at the end (and kids often love it when things go a bit wrong like the train goes off without someone or an animal escapes and causes mayhem) but there was lots of building of the different scenes beforehand. They also often enjoy acting out the same story frequently and the anticipation of 'the naughty goat kicking the bucket of water and it going all over the farmer' for example. Silly voices and exaggerated faces only add to the enjoyment. Fantastic for learning words, numbers - lots of opportunities to count, how many people waiting for the train, how many animals in the zoo etc (then you count again and find one missing!) colours (different coloured blocks for different colour houses), emotions (talking about how people feel when they miss the train, an animal escapes, they get a bucket of water over them etc! I was played with a lot as a child though and it was important to me to do the same with mine.

Hardly any one likes playing with toys with their children.
It's really boring but you just crack on as best you can.
Else send him to a nursery a couple of days a week.

*I find activities with a purpose and end point much easier. Jigsaws, colouring in, stories, that kind of this.

Imaginative play on the other hand does my head in*.

I think this is it. As adults, we prefer playing if there is an end product in sight.

Imaginative play goes on. And on. And on.
And on. There's no end to it and I often find myself dreading getting involved because I could be encouraged to keep going by my toddler for the next two hours. I don't, of course, but I do always feel a pang of guilt when I have to say, "Mummy is going to get on with some other jobs now." They just love you joining in.