How much do you play with your baby?

[Autumn13]

My DD is 6 months old, she has lots of sensory toys and a 360 jumperoo. I always feel so guilty whenever I put her to entertain herself, like putting her in her jumperoo or leaving her with her toys for a while. I feel like I constantly have to play with her and entertain her myself, I get so much guilt when I leave her in her jumperoo for more than 10 mins.

If your baby is happy playing and entertaining herself then let her! Of course make sure you engage her sometimes too, talk and read to her. But when she is happily playing on her own enjoy it! Get things done in peace like cooking, cleaning (of course where you can keep an eye on her).

This is clearly your first child 😆 I constantly played with and talked to DD1 and felt guilty if she wasnt constantly having engagement or entertainment. Now I have DD2 and the poor kid gets dragged from room to room in her bouncer as I clean and cook, she gets left on her mat, or lies beside me on the floor while I play with DD. She is very chill and happy to kick and entertain herself. Does her no harm at all. On the other hand, DD1 is incapable of entertaining herself and cried whenever I left the room til she crawled at 14 months. It's a pain in the butt. Babies are perfectly fine being left. If anything I say it's good for kids to get used to amusing themselves.

If DD is happily playing, get a brew and out your feet up! No need to feel guilty at all!

Honestly my baby's been rolling around on the floor for probably the last half hour, waving around one of the bits that dangles off his baby gym and yelling 'blah blah blah'. Please don't feel you need to be constantly entertaining; if the baby's happy getting on with it then it's all good.

I'm of the opinion that some alone time is good for a child. It teaches them to entertain themselves. Obviously balance it with quality time engaging reading, playing talking, singing.
If shes happy by herself for a bit use the time to catch up on stuff you need to or even sit down and have a coffee

Probably only a couple of hours spread over the whole day. If you play with them constantly you'll end up with a toddler/child who doesn't know how to entertain themselves.

I used to put dd in her jumperoo or on the floor with toys while i watched tv etc

I leave my LO to play alone as much as possible really. Not in a jumperoo, but either in her play pen or I'll sit on the sofa while she crawls around, gets toys out, furniture surfs. I'm there watching or doing something in the background like washing up. I also take her around with me doing jobs round the house. I think babies are natural explores and will navigate towards things they are interested in. Perhaps it's better to let them explore what they want to and do what interests them. If she gets certain toys out, I might show her how they work a bit, or sometimes I'll set something up for her like stringing some ribbon throw a colander for her to pull out. I do read a book with her a few times a day, and try to sing nursery rhymes, but she's not that interested!

At that age I tended to sit her on the floor with a treasure basket and she would be happy exploring independently for ages.

I'd say now at 18 months it's about 50/50, maybe a bit more of independent play. I'm in the room, obviously, but I just sit and watch or potter about if we're in the kitchen.

I think the ability to play independently is a crucial skill for her to develop, especially as she's an only child.