Oh thank you for this post, following!
7 month dd and 26 month ds, he's at nursery two days a week, we have absolutely no other support. It's better than it was, it gets better every day but honestly, it's bloody exhausting.
On a good day we will play blocks or duplo or trains etc. We'll go out all morning music or the woods or the park, he'll nap, then lunch, then I'll do chores while working really hard to keep them entertained by screaming nursery rhymes, smiling like a dc villain.
On a bad day, we'll watch TV. A lot of TV. Like today. The in laws are coming tomorrow, I'm trying to literally just do a quick tidy, hoover and put away the laundry. It's 3pm, I've tidied one room, sort of. She won't sleep unless I bounce her continuously for some reason, he does not like that and wants to sit on my head. I've done a million bottles and nappies today. At least double the normal amount.
All kids are different and if one more blog, insta mum or helpful well dressed, manicured and judgy parent tells me to just get the 2 year old to help with the chores or they they just need to learn to be bored, I swear I'll drop the kids at their house and not return until bedtime. (joking, obviously - it's been a bad day).
Messy play that's not too messy helps - like cooked, coloured spaghetti with plastic bugs or dinosaurs hidden inside. Books help. Nursery rhymes help. I've got a bag of prompts, he pulls out a sheep and we sing baa baa black sheep. A star and we sing twinkle twinkle etc. Going for a drive sometimes helps. F*ck the cost of petrol when two kids are screaming simultaneously. Oh, audio books! They help the toddler.
But for me, it's luck of the draw. Good days are amazing. Bad days make me want to go back to work. In a lighthouse, far far from shore.