Mommy/Daddy and Child Time?

MommyToAshley wrote: This poll was inspired by Gatalita. I am just curious how much time you spend doing activities with your toddler and how much time do they spend playing independently?

I try to find a good balance between independent play and spending time with Ashley.

A&A'smommy replied: Well I voted I guess I can do that now since she is almost one anyway most of the time is spent doing stuff with me.... I would have said 80% to 90% because of when I'm cleaning but she usually follows me around and "helps" me even when I'm washing dishes most of the time she sits at my feet.... grrr now I'm tearing up I can't believe she is getting so big!!!


oh yeah almost forgot when she does play by herself she does really good, she usually plays blocks or telephone, plays with her books (which she brings to mommy to read) or she throws her ball.

kimberley replied: i voted 80-90%. she doesn't spend a lot of time playing alone. she either has me or her brothers but will play for 15min or so alone sometimes.

Maddie&EthansMom replied: I voted 50% of activities with parents since she is in school (technically she isn't even in this forum anymore ) We let her watch 2 hours of TV a day and she plays VERY well independently. She has a very good imagination and she would prefer to play alone most days. I guess I just don't 'play' right. She draws, colors, plays barbies, baby dolls and plays with Ethan. She is such a good little girl. I'm so lucky.

ediep replied: its kind of hard to judge since some days we have classes or go shopping, he also naps for a good portion of the afternoon. I put 60-70% is spent doing activities with parent. We build blocks, read stories, play with cars, play outside...Jason will play alone with puzzles or that letter magnet, but we do play a lot together.

DansMom replied: Daniel doesn't let us leave him alone to play. Maybe he needs a sibling?

He says "push!" and "go!" when I'm doing my own thing and he wants me to play with him. Or sometimes he'll say "all done!", referring to whatever I'm doing, like reading the paper for 5 minutes.

I put 80-90%, it's just a guess.

coasterqueen replied: I'm not sure what to vote since I don't know if she plays alone at daycare per se but at home it's 50-50. Since we have limited time at home we spend a lot of time doing chores...Kylie either plays alone or is along side us while doing them. So in a sense she plays alone some but most times it's us playing with her, lol.

Kaitlin'smom replied: I would say about 50-60% with me I try and spend time with her, but I also want her to be able to entertain her self

kit_kats_mom replied: I put 30-40 but that's based on the 4 days that she's in daycare. Here's our typical daycare day:

She wakes up and watches a video which leaves me free to shower and get ready. If she got up early, we will sit on the couch and cuddle and watch a show together. We eat breakfast and then I get her ready to go. When I pick her up we usually do something fun for an hour then she plays on her own while I cook dinner. When DH gets home we all eat dinner together then he takes her for a walk to the park. They come home, dance and play for awhile. Then she gets a bath and a snack. Then comes quiet play time (either a calm video or some other quiet play) then I read her bedtime stories and she conks out.

We do more like 80-90% on the weekends and Fridays.

She would spend all day playing alone in her playroom if I let her but I really feel a bit guilty about upping her to 4 days a week at daycare so I try to make it up to her by doing art projects, baking etc with her when I've got her

coasterqueen replied:
You said it better than I did, lol. That's basically our "routine" per se.

DansMom replied: Oh man! How can I get Daniel to play on his own more? He won't even watch a video by himself. He needs to know that I'm watching and enjoying it, too, and if I'm cooking dinner he'll call out "Mama!!!" in a demanding voice when I'm missing something. He seems to hate playing alone, unless it's a brand new toy. I need to work on getting more balance with this.

kit_kats_mom replied:
hmmm, I dunno what the magic bullet is. My DD started playing alone a lot better when we moved and she got her own playroom. It's right off of the living room so we can still hear her (and see her thanks to the big mirror that we put up on a wall). We packed all of her toys in there and she's fine playing alone. i did put some of the rubber mats down to protect the carpet from her. She can be a bit messy and that's why I hovered so much before.

alice&arik replied: I think Arik plays pretty good on his own. He does his own thing most of the time. But we still do stuff together throughout the day. But there are days when he won't leave me alone. He hates when I am on here, and he always has to show me something. I usually get about 15 minutes at a time on here then he kicks me off. Yesterday he just HAD to have makeup on while I was getting ready. He had it all! Foundation, powder, blush, and mascara. He likes to look in the mirror and check it out. But we don't do that everyday. So i would say 60% when we are here all day and not at daycare.

mummy2girls replied: She plays at daycare so with me only about an hour at night by the time we get home and she is ready for bed. but on the weekends i have to say all day im playing with her... and she follows me around when im cleaning and cooking also.