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Tips on how to keep your baby amused

Parenting

Your talents as an entertainer and your imagination are certainly stretched when you have a toddler. Many mothers admit quite frankly: “I have run out of ideas”. Of course, the toddler years are delightful. Your child develops so many of his social skills during this time, and she can be great fun to be with. But all her energy and enthusiasm needs an outlet if she’s not to get bored, cross and grizzly with life.

It’s quite normal for a toddler to need active amusement much of the time. You find you have to structure your daily routine round her needs for stimulation and entertainment in a way that’s quite different from when she was a baby.

Don’t expect too much from your toddler’s own resources of concentration and application. “She can’t play on her own for more than two minutes” is something you often hear form parents. But an 8 month old for instance, is doing very well if she is able to play with something for five minutes at a stretch without needing or demanding your involvement.

In fact, that warning about a long period silence out of your sight meaning your something naughty or dangerous is often true! As time goes on, however, your child will be able to play on his own for gradually lengthening periods, especially if she develops an interest in something like dolls or toy cars.

Occasionally, something will grab her attention for quite a long time-even half an hour or more-but most parents learn that part of the art of looking after a toddler when we really do need to be getting on with something else is to be able to get involved in her activity at the same time.

You can talk to her about what she’s doing and get on with your own task in short burst of a minute or so at a time. You get better at it with practice!

A lot of parents find they can manage to do household chores with their toddler “helping”. Yes, it takes twice long, and your child may lose interest halfway through, but it can be done. Even a young toddler loves to copy mummy and daddy.

Give her a small cloth of her own when you’re cleaning or dusting: stand her on a chair to help her reach up to your level when you’re cooking, and give her an unbreakable cup or bowl plus a spoon and something to stir. A piece of dough to roll and mould while you’re making chapatis is good fun - though some children will try to eat the raw dough before it gets anywhere near the frying pan.

Washing the car is another wonderful way of helping - as it’s done outside, with protective clothing, the mess problem just doesn’t arise.

You can probably think of other ways your child can join in with what you do. It’s important for her to learn about helping and sharing, and to appreciate that the household has an existence apart from her - and that mummy and daddy need to get on with things sometimes when she is isn’t the focus of their attention. But helping them do these things can be fun too.

You’ll probably find one of the best ways to keep your toddler happy is to take her out. Apart from the obvious visits to new places like the animal orphanage or giraffe centre, you can choose from quite a wide range of more organised toddler activities.

A trip to watch a building site (lots to see, lots to talk about) can be really interesting if you take time to stop and look at the different things going on, rather than hurrying by on your way to somewhere else. A bus or railway station is a good place to visit if it’s busy enough.

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