When will DS (25 months) play on his own?

[scotlandb]

I'm honestly tearing my hair out, he won't play on his own at all. I just read something saying they play on their own for 10-15 mins from 18 months and I'm thinking really!? DS is only happy if I'm sat with him or helping him where he gets so frustrated.. he's driving me crazy. The phrase "mummy's busy" which I've been trying recently when emptying the dishwasher or tidying up just doesn't seem to make any sense to him, he thinks that me and DH are there for him 100% of the time and moans and whines if we're not.

We try to be good parents, and make him laugh, play with him loads and talk about things, but he's very clingy and sometimes I do try and ignore him a bit to encourage him to play on his own. Problem is I can't actually go and do anything like cleaning etc because he'll just leave the room and follow me.
He's absolutely fine and meeting all milestones, his speech better by the day, but how can I encourage him to keep himself busy? Will it come with time? I feel other friends children of a similar age are much more independent now..

Its fairly normal for them to want to be in the same room as you at that age, but he should be able to play in the same room but independently.

Some good things to try:

Sit and play with him for 5-10 minutes, then make an excuse and leave for a minute, but come back and return to playing. Slowly increase the amount of time you're away so he gets used to holding the game by himself. But make sure you always return so he knows you're not leaving him completely.

Encourage him to be in a room by himself by sending him away from you, rather than you leaving him; ask him to go and fetch X from X place.

Place a new toy/treasure basket or an old toy he hasn't seen for a while or just something that hold his attention in the room you want him in and send him in there to get something, hopefully he noticed the new, interesting thing and his attention is caught and he will settle and play for a while. Sometimes they need to forget that they're playing by themselves, so don't make an issue of being busy just distract him onto something else.

Give him jobs to do to help (either real or made up).

Comes with time I found. DS was much better by 3 and now 4 he's more than happy to play by himself for a decent length of time.

my 4 year old hates playing by herself, hates toys- and literally just likes people and attention- its hell. We found colouring and puzzles helped a bit come 3- but shes never been a sit with her toys kind of kid. Her younger sister even at 1 shows a greater interest in solo playing