how well should my daughters be playing together at this age?

[Foreverstressed28]

I have a 3 year 8 month old and a 1 year 6 month old girls. I wanted to know if at this age and with a 2 year gap, should they be playing together? I mean actually playing together, like "mummy and baby"/ "doctors" etc? At the moment they kind of play but not really, older one does what she wants and younger one causes distruction around her, causing frustration.

Someone tell me what is normal of a 2 year gap and their ages.

No OP. They shouldn't...well they COULD but it's not expected.

Just a side note...my DD's have never really played together despite encouraging them to. They're 13 and 10 now. The age gap is almost 3 years.

That sounds totally normal. They'll maybe start playing games in a year or so.

2y 9m gap between my youngest two now almost 4.5 and 20m

They tend to play alongside rather than together - littlest copies biggest pretending to pour tea or they build their own wooden block towers- but it’s not how my 4y old plays with other 4y old in acting out roles.
They will “read” books to each other and play on slides, Chase/hide and seek though.

I don't think most 18 month olds would have the ability to engage in that kind of imaginative play. Maybe in 1-2 years

Mine are 2yrs 5 months apart. They only really started playing together after Dd2 was 2, and even then it was very hit and miss. I'd say they only played together properly once DD2 was about 2.5 and had been to nursery school

It’s not the gap, it’s the age of your youngest.

Children that age tend to play next to each other rather than with each other.

Give it a year and you’ll see a big change.

At those ages my big one used to assign my little one a role in games. Little one didn't have a clue but sometimes did as instructed. Was often given a role despite being asleep. Give it a while until little one has some more playing skills. Mine rarely stop doing imaginative play - I complained about being typecast as always their mummy, so now I get to be grandma.

Yes I think at that age it would only happen if your older DD is very maternal ir your younger is very compliant. Mune are neither!

Mine are exactly the same as Love51s! Sometimes they give the impression of playing together, but really the older one assigns a role to the younger, and the younger sometimes appears to comply, but it’s mostly coincidence.

They do play together in a physical way though, like row, row your boat, tickling each other, chasing, etc

(They’re 3 years 6 months and 16 months)

It's not the age gap it's the difference in stages in their social development. An 18 month old would rather be playing parallel or by themselves where as a 3 year 8 month old may want to take part in cooperative but will still do parallel play as well as solo.
My daughters are 5 and 2 and occasionally they'll play "together" however most of the time they're playing with the same toys but just different games. :)

I have a 2 year 4 month gap between DDs and it's only really been since around the time DD2 turned 4 they've been playing together nicely and consistently.

I think when they were your DDs aged DD1 pretty much ignored DD2 when playing

Mine are 5 and almost 3. They don't play role playing games yet because DD2 doesn't "get" them yet. So they tend to run around screaming together or be silly and say poo a lot and then giggle uncontrollably. They might, occasionally, have some kind of tea party for a bit until DD2 decides it is great fun to smash it all up. I'm hoping they will play together once DD2 is more of a preschooler than a tiny feral savage who can't be left alone for more than 2 seconds toddler.