Struggling with 2.5 year olds high energy

2 Years Old

My 2.5 year old boy goes to a small in home daycare 4 days a week ran by my neighbor who he knows well. She has 3 other kiddos there and he gets along great with her son who is 3. She does a really good job at keeping them active during the day with outside time, indoor playing and crafts. She never really had bad remarks about my son and he seems to be fine there. I live with my parents and my dad picks my son up about an hour before I get home and when he does he also tries to get my son outside to play or they play inside. When I get home he immediately is happy to see me but then his energy hits 100 and he wants to do this, that, go outside, chase the dog, hide and seek, run around and when I have to tell him I have to get dinner started or put my things away or simply I/ he can’t at the moment, he throws the biggest tantrum ever that takes sometimes 10 minutes to come out of. It’s also the biggest struggle to get him to eat dinner too because all the wants to do is play. I’ve tried limiting snacks after 3:45 since dinner is usually ready about 5:45 and that didn’t do anything, he still refuses to eat and just wants to play, which in turn makes the tantrums worse since he’s hungry. Tonight when I got home we went outside for 20 minutes before going inside and eating and that did absolutely nothing. We’ve been in the same exact routine for AGES, I really am a routine person, so he knows what to expect.

I’m at a loss. I love how he is so energetic and curious but this is becoming such a struggle with the constant meltdowns and refusing to eat anything. I’m a single mom so I don’t always have the time to do what he wants when he wants when I get home. When I’m off on the weekends we literally spend 90% of our day outside playing and he still goes through the same thing too. I even bought him a little trampoline to jump on to get the energy out and it does nothing.

Posted Apr 8, 2026, 2:55 AM UTC

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