Playtime horror

Absolutely it is hard! I get so triggered when I'm playing blocks and building a tower and she comes and destroys it. But I saw a thing on TikTok. That was explaining that kids respond to reactions and if we give a big reaction (positive or negative) they are going to keep doing the thing because toddlers don't comprehend positive and negative the way we adults do. They equate all interactions as connections. It takes a long time for them to cognitively understand negative language and such

Play games where the point is destruction so your goals are more aligned. Be dinosaurs that stomp and smash. Get a pool noodle, cut it in half, and find things to hit and hammer. Throw ball pit balls all over the living room (yell out colors to throw!). Let him make the rules. Consider he might be equally frustrated when *you* won't follow *his* instructions and imagine if he described playing with you as playtime horror.... Take him to playgroups so he can play with/near other kids. It's fine not to love every minute. Do what you can. It won't last forever.

Can you set him up for some independent play?

Play shouldn’t have instructions. It should just be play, especially depending on the age of your little one. Since you posted in toddlerhood, I assume that he’s under four, at this stage, they really don’t understand rules. And I think that what looks like destruction is also kind of figuring out like what’s actually works. What is this thing made out of right so maybe like somebody else said make the point destruction and then figure out how do you clean up together?

A lot of times toddlers wanna parallel play! Where you play within proximity to eachother but kinda do your own thing, and a huge interest of toddlers is deconstructing and destroying and pulling or pouring things out! A lot of our playtime with my son looks like mom picking up toys in a basket or bucket and lil dude tossing them all out just to do it all again