"Playing" with young baby (9 months). How??!

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Hello,

My baby boy is 9 months old and is VERY happy and VERY physically active (starting crawling at 4 months and smiles at everyone he meets).

He gets lots of attention from me and we interact physically and verbally all the time through talking and singing to him and giving him lots of cuddles and kisses etc. I take him to baby groups all the time to crawl around and play with other babies so he has plenty of stimulation in other ways. But when we are in our house he just ends up on the floor playing and crawling round on his own as I find the act of "playing" with him (I.e. when he is crawling around on the floor and "playing" with toys) really hard and boring as he seems to young to really play with. He does not stop and play with a toy for very long before shoving it in his mouth or moving to the next one. As he is so active he is also hard to keep still to do any nursery rhymes etc. So in the day at home with him I up going in the internet or "trying" to do jobs. However, I end up feeling very guilty that I am not playing with him enough but whenever I try I cannot come up with many ways to engage him other than "peek-a-boo" or "what this?" and hold up a toy for him to eat.

I have no doubt that when he is older and able to engage in toys in a more meaningful way we can play together more. However, meanwhile can anyone reassure me that this is normal and they have the same issues regarding "playing" with a baby this young....or should I be making more of an effort and using my imagination and therefore do mums' have any suggestions about how I can play with him? I end up feeling very bored but also very guilty!!!!

I have an 8 month old. We do singing, so incy wincy spider with actions, round and round the garden tickling, bounce her on my knee for row your boat, lift her up for grand old duke of York. We read books together (that is not my... are good, or ones with strokey bits or flaps, the library has loads). I squeak or scrunch toys that make a noise at her, or bash on saucepans with spoons. We've also got a chunky wooden jigsaw and I put the pieces in and she takes them out and throws them.

Oh, and I also surround her on the floor with toys in the hope that she'll entertain herself so I can get on with jobs! Definitely don't play with her all the time, they need to entertain themselves too!

Have a look on the imagination tree blog, treasure baskets. Some nice ones for babies

I could have written your post! dd does a LOT of what I call "rampaging" ie moving around the room cruising crawling and eating/bashing various toys, and I wonder if I should be actively "playing" more.

She does like story books though (the only time she sits still, very good for pre nap wind down or if she's getting a bit hectic) and peekaboo.

Er what else... sometimes I say eg "clap clap clap" if she is clapping (recently she will clap if I say clap, she looks v pleased with herself) or I make funny sounds like clicking my tongue or I wave my arms around or do a comedy dance. only if I'm in the mood though . I also sometimes walk her round the room on my fingers or help her walk on her walker, she loves that but it kills my back!

Sometimes I show her a new thing to do with a toy eg spin it so it clatters on the floor, sometimes she loves it but tbh more often she just grabs the toy and does her own thing.

Occasionally we do this little piggy or incy wincy spider or tickle games but tbh I think she's not that bothered and would rather be moving around.

Honestly I think once they are mobile their patience for lap based stuff or sitting still is very limited (at least it is for DD who is like the Duracell bunny).

sounds perfectly normal, make the most of it!
only other game I can think of is water play or going in the garden or park and getting filthy

Seriously, you don't need to "play" with him! Cuddles, tickles, kisses, songs, stories, bath time, meal time, bed time - all good. Letting them entertain themselves is a vital life skill, you will be glad of it later.

Your LO sounds just like my DS - 10mo, always on the move, crawling everywhere trying to walk, finger walking etc.

Since crawling DS won't even really sit on my lap to look at a book any more cos he is just so desperate to rawl around on the floor all day! Sad face - I loved reading him stories!

One thing DS loves at the moment is kicking a beach ball from the pound shop round the house whilst I hold his fingers and he 'walks'...also if he is getting a bit overwrought (happens often with all this rawling around!) I plonk him down on the floor, put some nice music on and blow bubbles (again from the pound shop!) whilst telling him to try and catch them, and saying 'pop! The bubble went pop on your foot!' Etc etc....he seems to like this.

Also recently have got a couple of saucepans out the cupboard and filled them with a few knickknacks (wooden bangle, beaded necklace, small toy car, clothes pegs) and then put the saucepan lids on. DS likes opening the lids and looking inside, and finds it funny if I sit with him on the floor and pretend to cook what's in the pans saying 'sizzle sizzle' and shaking them around :-S

Oh and I noticed recently that he really likes pulling all the clothes out of his small laundry basket. So I now ask him to 'help' mummy with emptying the washing machine...with a bit of a demonstration from me he is really happy to pull a load of wet clothes out of the machine into the kitchen floor and then sits there 'sorting' them (ie flinging then about!) for 4-5 mins whilst I do the drying up/make a cuppa/stand there looking at mumsnet ;-)

So although I am not actually say there 'playing' with him I am involving him in a few things around the house...he seems to like it.

Does he need to play with him all the time? I just used to leave DD to get on with stuff by herself. The opportunity to read a book, watch telly or surf the internet without needing to constantly monitoring and/or playing was great. I second the fact that kids need time by themselves.

Rolling balls to him to let him catch it, or he goes chasing after it. My 9mo loves doing this forever! His favourite are also a drum, maracas, xylophone (little tikes one is the best sounding one!) and his sisters keyboard. Fabrics with different textures are also good.

Keep doing what you're doing. You don't have to be in your baby's face all the time, as they want to explore at this age. DS2's favourite toy at that age, developmentally, was a monkey that ran away when he touched it. He also loved things like those plastic blocks with loads of different things inside them and cloth books with different textures. DS1 liked a board book with a mirror in the back of it. Yes he chewed it, but he was also fascinated by the mirror.

When a baby is grabbing something, looking at it, and even just stuffing it in their mouth, they're usually learning far more about the world than you'd expect.

DS1 used to LOVE pulling clothes out of baskets, at that age!

I let both of mine rampage by themselves all the livelong day - they are now 1 and 2 yrs old and perfectly well adjusted. I did sing to them occasionally as the mood took me and occasionally tried to formally PLAY with them as you describe, but I usually just gave up as they didn't seem interested.

Keep bringing in toys/distractions - charity shop stuff is great - and your baby will be perfectly happy.

Thanks so much everyone. I have a few more ideas but more importantly I got some reassurance that this is okay. I think when a child is particularly active they just want to practice their motor skills i.e. crawling and pulling themselves up etc. So any formal playing a parent tries to do has limited interest. As long as we are in the vicinity and taking some interest in what they are doing (and watching out for hazards of course!) as well as singing and reading when the mood takes you both it seems more than enough. And like I said he seems very happy! I often think that our generation puts too much pressure on ourselves to constantly provide stimulating environments to our babies. When I speak to my mum, most babies of her generation watched mummies iron!!

I'm so glad to read this thread! Ds is 9 months old and I feel bad for not playing with him constantly. He is really into pushing things along so he moves the light furniture around tge room. He also pulls the clothes off tge drying each and pulls the books off tge shelves.

The things I find it easy to engage him with is his pop up tunnel, it's from Ikea and cost about 15 pounds. I sit at one end and call his name, when he starts crawling through I run to the other side ( and repeat and repeat and repeat) ds also loves musical instruments, we have a glochenspeal, whistles and a drum, he likes to play with them and he dances if I play them.

:)

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Your post brought back memories..I went back to work when DD was 6mo and I remember coming home from work and having an hour or so to spend with her before bed time and literally counting the minutes of our "play" because it was so boring. Unlike your DS she wasn't very active at that age so it was a question of me trying to engage her and finding the whole thing really dull and pointless

She's now 7 and lots of fun. I think you can just leave them to their own devices really, as long as they are safe. Banging a toy on the floor is the equivalent of a week in Disneyland to them

Play find the lady - Get a ball and three opaque cups that fit over it. Show him the ball and hide under a cup. Move the cups round and ask where the ball is.

I didn't/don't play with DD constantly (11 mths). I just can't. We have focussed 'playing' for a while, usually followed by 'reading' a board book (preferably with flaps she can lift), then she cruises off to explore by herself.