Let’s be honest here, keeping an infant or toddler busy is not an easy task! You have a whole to do list and unless they are sleeping you are hardly getting anything done.
Tips For Keeping Your Little One Busy So You Can Get Something Done!
There’s somewhat of a debate on distraction vs incorporation with kids. And I believe it goes deeper than just incorporate your kids in everything you do. Obviously this depends on their age, their abilities, their attention span, etc.
For instance, if I need to do some work on my computer for a couple minutes, I’m not going to bring my 10 month old over to sit on my lap and watch me type. But if I am making dinner, I will let my 10 month old stand in the toddler tower at the counter top and help me wash the vegetables and pour the pasta in the pot and watch me make dinner.
There’s a fine line on what parents are comfortable letting their child do and when it’s time to make a distraction for them, and there’s nothing wrong with that! They’re your child and you know what’s best for them!
I personally try to incorporate my child into a lot of things I do, but an infant has the attention span of a knat and hand-eye coordination is hardly there and we’re still learning the word “no” so we have some limitations.
Infants and toddlers get bored and distracted very easily so even if you are trying to incorporate them into what you’re doing but they have had enough of it, that’s ok!
I spend a lot of time in the kitchen and while my child may not want to do what I’m doing he still wants to be near me, so instead of putting him in the other room with his toys I let him explore. I close the gates to parts of the house he doesn’t need to be in and I set out his toys in the living room, but I let him roam. When they start walking (and even crawling) it’s a whole other level of curiosity that hits. They want to get into everything… and I mean EVERYTHING!
So for the kitchen I lock the cabinets I don’t want him getting into and then in the cabinets and drawers he can reach and open I just put stuff that is not breakable and easily washable! The muffin tins, kids cups, and spatulas are a hit!
Yes, there might be a mess afterwards and they might make a bunch of noise but at least I got lunch and the cookies for the weekend made without him coming up to me every 5 seconds whining and tugging on my pants!
SNACKS!
Food is always a win in our household, I give him his snack cup and he’s off to the races!
I give him healthy snacks that are easily digestible because he doesn’t always like to sit still and eat, he is ALWAYS on the move!
Make Games!
I have made a couple different games for him to play just so I can get some work done on my computer but still keep an eye on him.
- I incorporated those muffin tins he likes so much and his toys, this was so quick and easy to do and kept him busy for several minutes!
- One of his favorite toys are the colorful textured rings so I try to use those whenever I can. It was summer time and a super nice day out so I took a big container, filled it with water and threw his toys in! He loves the water so this kept him busy for a while, but he splashed so much water out that he ended up picking up the container and dumping it out…but the fun was worth the clean up!
- Another good inside game is the toy unwrapping, he was about 10 months old for this game. I just took some of his bath toys and wrapped thim each in plastic wrap and scattered them on the floor, so he had to crawl around and unwrap them. I even took this a step farther and used painter tape and taped each one on different parts of the coffee table so he had to walk around the peel them off and then unwrap them.
- Back to the rings and those tins, I took a loaf tin and hooked the rings all round the edges to create a ring pull. This was a great game for sitting in his wagon when I need to work on a project in the garage but didn’t want him crawling/walking around.
There’s so many ideas and good options for keeping your infants busy so you have a few minutes to get something done that you weren’t able to get done while they were napping. Because let’s face it, we don’t need to give them all of our attention the entire wake period, they have to learn to play and play independently.
Now I’m not saying keep them distracted the entire wake period, I will take breaks from whatever I’m doing and play with him, eat with him, etc. because that’s the whole point of being a stay at home parent right?
But there are great lessons in these games and activities, learning how to play independently, and explore!
