Am I the only parent that feels this way?

[EmotionSickness]

Hanging out with a toddler is boring.

I love my child entirely, but when it’s just me and him, I get so utterly bored.

I don’t want to smash trains together repeatedly.

I don’t want to watch Paw Patrol.

I don’t want to sing mindless games at toddler groups.

I don’t want to run around soft play centres.

I don’t want to chase him round a muddy park in the cold.

Please someone tell me I’m not alone in this (and also some ideas for stuff that’s more child and parent friendly because I’m losing my mind 😂)

Why God invented nurseries! 😁

Yes it's often very boring but gets more interesting as they get older.
I used to do things I enjoyed too such as going out for walks (I love walking), looking at nature, trips to the farm (I actually enjoy this!), trips to museums, trips to friends houses etc.

It’s often difficult to properly enjoy those things though. I took mine to a museum and didn’t get to look at anything as my eldest wouldn’t come away from a farm machine display. It’s fine, he was enjoying it and interested but still boring as hell for me!

It is very tedious and repetitive. I just tried to do lots of things I wanted to do like go to zoos and go abroad lots. The chatter is so much easier to tolerate when you are bobbing around in a pool in the sun!
My main saviour was also hanging out with other parents so the toddlers played together and we chatted. Trust me, as hard as it is right now for you I’d give my right arm to go back to toddler days, mine is 18 and went away to uni and I miss the chatter

Do the bits you enjoy. I liked building lego but not playing soldiers with them, so I'd build. I liked laying out the train tracks not playing trains so that's what I did.

You are 100% correct op.
Why do you think the majority of fathers are not rushing to become sahp?

@Simonjt
Laughed and laughed at this!

Not much really! It's crap!

I can honestly say I loved it. If I was tiring of playing a particular game I would guide them to something else.

We went out somewhere every day, usually to friend's or a group or park, and I had a constant feeling that one day I would miss it.

For me it was about being with other people as well as the toddler/baby.

We're all different.

When they were little I found doing stuff with other families helped. I also made sure we got out every day.

I enjoy
board games
Reading
Cinema (our cinema does a kids session for little ones)
Trails
Interactive museums
Trampolining/inflatables
Seaside

I also found found visiting different places broke it up rather than the same stuff all the time. And driving was quite relaxing.

Thanks for the praise everyone but this is really just survival tips I have got from on here mostly! And habits I developed from working as a language teacher with young children.

I should point out also that I don't actually do the themed days thing. It would be lovely to do it but by the evening I am totally switched off from parenting and don't want to think about doing things for the next day. Maybe when I'm getting a guaranteed 8 hours' sleep through the night!! It was an idea I got from another mumsnetter which I thought was really lovely though. There were some fantastic threads on here through the pandemic for "trapped toddler parents" if you want to put that into the search bar and have a read through for ideas. Tuff trays were extremely popular. Great Christmas gift (though not very exciting to unwrap) if you are still stuck for something or have some budget left over.

Writing lists of activities with different parental involvement levels is a way to help pace myself and make sure I'm not totally burnt out by 11am and resorting to TV all day endlessly. I think we can slip into this idea that we have to either be full on Miss Rachel style entertainers or put the TV on and I don't think that's true (or helpful). Children will potter around and play if you give them the opportunity to.

As I said I can't be doing with detailed plans (though I think this is fab if you can do it) but I also tend to freeze and do nothing if I make no plan at all. So having a sort of rough structure of OK this portion of the day is for that kind of activity, and then having a pre-written list of ideas for "that kind of activity" helps me not get into that freeze space.

Lastly having certain activities with a set end point I find a really useful tool. So I did/do a lot of "Let's build the train track together then mummy will have a sit down" and they play with it. Or building a small lego model. Or doing a jigsaw. Or playing a board game and then I can say "Last round then I've had enough".

When they are like "Play with meeeeee" and then it goes on forever and they get upset if you want to stop it can be wearing and you end up feeling like a superbitch from hell.