How to entertain very active toddler in the morning

[FryingPam]

My 21-months old gets up around 5.30 (6am if I’m lucky), we usually have finished our morning programme and breakfast just before 7am. I find it quite difficult to fill the time until 10am when most things (museums, play cafes, groups) open. When the weather is good, we do park and playground from 8am-10am, but on rainy days I’m at a loss. Of course I play with him at home as well, but after one hour at home, he really wants to get out and gets incredibly whiny.

CBeebies. Save your sanity and put the tv on at that time and have a coffee.

I find it’s a lot easier to limit kids screen time when they are older as they can learn to play independently by themselves or with each other. Mine are 3 & 4 now and only have the tv on for a couple of hours at the weekends. They had way more when they were younger because under 2’s are just unreasonable at 5.30am frankly.

Yes, I might have to introduce some screen time

What about something physical for him to play on indoors? Mine loved our pikler triangle as it had a slide attached and they would climb it, shoot cars down it, build dens etc

Things like swimming often open earlier. Otherwise we would go for walks in the woods on wet days for a bit of extra shelter. It is tough though. I'd also do bigger day trips on wetter days that took longer to drive to so we could leave earlier.

Assuming you’ve exhausted all the usuals like capping the nap, gro clock, later bedtime etc. to get them sleeping to a more godly hour then absolutely just stick on some (educational?) TV on and ‘enjoy’ a coffee whilst you wake up!

What do you want to do OP? You're whole day can't revolve around you toddler, I'm sure he has lots of toys to play with

How is he at the supermarket? I’ve had many an 8am trip while it’s nice and quiet.

That’s a good idea, he likes the supermarket. We also have a B&Q near by that opens at 7am, I’ll put this on my ‘desperate’ list.

I think he just is very low sleep need. I put him to bed at 7.30 but he never seems tired and usually only sleeps around 8.30. I’ve also cut his nap to 1h15min but this didn’t make a difference either. He’s also on his feet all day and we do a lot of activities, no idea how he manages all that without getting tired because I’m absolutely knackered.

He does, but he’s not good at playing independently yet and will cry if I don’t give him my full attention. But I might try to put on a yoga video in the morning and see if I can work out, last time I tried he just crawled all over me but that was a while ago now, time to give this another go.

“…will cry if I don’t give him my full attention.”

They need to jollied (or bored) out of this. It’s in both of your interests to get them more independent and playing by themselves. Even if it’s a few minutes, or whilst you’re present but doing something else. Big praise for things (“see if you can build a big tower while mummy sorts these papers out… well done!!”)

@Nosleepforthismum not all children watch TV. When DS was that age he would refuse all suggestions of sitting in front of a screen. Honestly it was exhausting as he stopped his lunch nap around his 2nd birthday. The only saving grace was that he would sleep well & didn’t get up before 7am.

OP I would just get him out the house to keep him busy if you can face it. 6-10am is a long stretch of time to kill at home.

My first DS was very much like this.. would demand that I play with him constantly, he never played alone despite much encouragement. He would scream if I went into another room for even a second (even though he could have just followed me).

He also had a phase of getting up at 5.30… It’s really hard work and I think people with children of different temperaments don’t fully understand.

I didn’t realise how extreme my DS was until I had my second who happily potters around by himself and doesn’t scream at me, totally different children.

My eldest did start sleeping in later when he was 2 and a bit. There is hope 🤞

Legos.

And I wouldn't cap his nap. My 21 month old never sleeps more than 10 -10.5 hours per night. Ever. Not since he was 11 months. But he does take 2.5 hour day naps. I was capping them for aaaages until I decided to leave it and it made zero difference to night time sleep.

My eldest was an early waker 5.30/6am - I'm afraid we had a tv in the bedroom and I used to take him in bed with me, put the tv on and doze till 7! He was a good sleeper and slept from 7pm though so I accepted the early mornings! If you start at 7 it's a lot easier to fill the time until 9.30/10 when you can go out. Maybe start with a good long splashy bath with toys and then breakfast and playing with duplo, train track etc while you sit and have a cuppa - it's good to encourage independent play as much as you can!

@NorthFacingGardener yes I agree - my first was able to play independently with Lego, playdoh, jigsaws, water in sink from a really young age. DS would never entertain himself nor would he watch TV. It only got easier once he started playing footie & rugby when he was in reception class. He definitely needed a run out a couple of times a day.

That’s interesting. DS started to do 2h+ naps at nursery and I thought this might be the problem, I’m now cutting them when he’s with me…but like you, I don’t see a difference yet (only doing it for 3 days so far).

How do you feel about a later bedtime? My 1y old goes to bed at 9:30, which gets us to a 6:30am wake-up.

In the morning I let her run around the room while I lie in bed for an extra 20 minutes. Then we do morning stuff, then Lego/reading/housework/drawing/charging around with toy buggy until it's time to go. Walking TO places (we usually don't take the pram unless we're going further afield) takes up a lot of time, so can leave a good 45 mins before things open. We go out in all weather (unless it's actively torrential, but that doesn't usually last long).