How to encourage independent play in toddlers

Hi mums, I have a 4,5 years old girl and a 4 months old boy. My partner is working FT so most of the time I look after both kids. My baby boy is not an easy baby, he needs me 24/7, if I don’t lie next to him while he’s sleeping, he would end of waking up in 15-20min. It’s very hard for me to do anything longer than 20-30min (ps: I don’t want to do babywearing because I have bad back pain and prefer baby to sleep in the bed). The issue is my daughter is on school break now, and I feel sorry for her I can’t spend much time with her like I used to and she has to play on her own most of the time. She also gets bored very quickly and she can’t engage in any activities more than 1 hour, if it isn’t TV or ipad which I don’t encourage her to watch for more than 30min a day. How do you mamas entertain your toddler at home if you need to attend to baby most of the time? Any advice would be much appreciated.

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I have a 2.5yo and a 14mo and I struggled with not being able to give my toddler as much attention as well. If we're at home I can't sit down because both of them want to be on me, but try to push each other off because they don't want to share me 🫠 So we're pretty much always outside (we have no yard though, so have to go out to do things). I'm also on my own majority of the time.The things we do to keep them, especially the older toddler entertainment are: - water play at the kitchen sink - lots of playing outside at the park and beach - sometimes I'll set her up with her dolls and create a story and she'll keep playing - I used to get her involved in 'helping' me with looking after the baby, easy things like doing up the zip of his sleep sack and picking out clothes for him so she feels involved - I'll also set up the youngest one with toys and give the older one cuddles and read a book - we go to the library a lot - I also try to spend as much one on one time with her as I can to fill her little cup

If hubby is home every now and then I'll leave my youngest with him and take her out for a baby chino, or something special that she enjoys

Thank you Estelle for your suggestion, I do set up water play and role play for her, just not been able to be outside much as the LO does not feed when we’re out but I definitely will do that when he’s a bit older.

Yes I remember those days, both of mine used to get so distracted outside that they wouldn't feed, then would get so cranky I'd just leave. It's so much easier with two once the second one is established on solids, because then you can go out and give everyone snacks

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