Why must everything be a game?

[Auntiedear]

My partner and I regularly have our 7 year old niece to stay which we both really enjoy.

The one thing I do find frustrating though is that absolutely everything has to be some sort of game!

Going upstairs to get ready for bed involves crawling on all fours or deciding to go upstairs backwards. Getting dressed is accompanied with doing high kicks or pretending to fall over.

We do play games with her (particularly imagination type games) as well as do activities together but sometimes I just want her to get dressed without it involving gymnastics!

Is this typical 7 year old behaviour or do I need to be firmer?

I should add we do always accomplish the task but it just takes a lot more of my (mental) energy than I'd like. I don't have any children of my own (am currently TTC) so fully appreciate that I don't have much experience in this area.

Any thoughts on how to handle? She is very sensitive and gets angry / upset easily as well so I always try to keep things calm emotionally.

Tbh if she is only with you occasionally what is the harm. Be firmer if you genuinely need to be ( let's be safe on the stairs) but otherwise go with it. But yes being a parent can be v repetitive and v boring and it is a marvel how young children are happy doing things the long way round , using more energy than needed when we adults just want to sit down again ASAP. Wish that feeling for life stayed with us.

Agree with this.
3/4 may be but 7 , I would expect them to just get dressed etc without all that fiddle arsing about.

She's 7!

Of course everything is a game to her. She's finding joy in the mundane. Don't you do that anymore?

I'm 48 and often run upstairs on all fours because it's fun. My daughter is 16 and we turn all manner of mundane crap into a game because its nice to do do.

I'm not sure what you're expectations of parenting and family life are if being stupid and making a game out of nothing isn't part of it! 😉

She stays with us every other weekend (Friday - Monday) so it is pretty regularly!!

I'm 48 and often run upstairs on all fours because it's fun

This kid has you wrapped around her little finger. I was exactly the same as a child, a real drama queen.

Don't you then? 🤣

It's like being a little kid 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think sometimes adults forget about the simple pleasure of just being silly.

I think some messing about and fun is a laugh but when it’s every single thing it’s a bit much, and everything becomes a big fuss over nothing.

With getting dressed I think I’d just show her where her clothes are then say ‘see you when you’re dressed’ and leave. Generally a child of 7 doesn’t need hands on undivided attention while putting their clothes on. I’d think a lot of the falling over/kicking and throwing herself about etc is for your benefit and without an audience she’d be likely just to get dressed normally.

I think people who do the whole " cor look at me I'm so whacky" are really tedious.

Having a laugh is fun but running upstairs on all fours is "Auntie has been at the sherry again" territory.

Well it depends. If I told people irl you might have a point. But no one knows other than MN (where I'm anonymous), my kids and my boyfriend because he heard once and asked if that's what I'd done 🤷🏻‍♀️

So, not to he 'wacky' just a bit of harmless, free, 3 second fun now and again 🤷🏻‍♀️

This is what I thought immediately!

You sound a bundle of laughs.

Playing with kids has loads of benefits. One being that it is fun!

I get that not everyone wants to be playful, but I don't understand trying to police other people's private lives by making statements clearly designed to make them feel humiliated. If anything is tedious, it is this sort of mean girl stuff.