...to absolutely detest pretend games

[uggbug]

Hello long time lurker. Will somebody please come along and tell me AIBU to hate every minute of pretending to be a lego person/soft toy/rabbit/builder/fireman? I am a SAHM so I spend a fair amount of time with my DS (3.5).

I can just about manage reading books, craft stuff, playing in the garden/park and I actually almost enjoy taking the kids out. But I will literally hide in the toilet to avoid even a few minutes of role playing. Do I need to feel guilty about this?

Am I causing long term emotional damage by leaving this to my husband / in-laws / any passing child that I can strong-arm into my house to play with him?

Literally the minute he says 'Look Mummy, you can be the...' my shoulders go up. This morning I had a lego person with a petrol pump instead of a head and I had to go around as 'petrol-head' filling up random household objects thinking only 1 year until he goes to school...

Umm, I just refuse! I can't bear it either. Good for them to use their imagination and do it themselves is my excuse... :)

Oh I quite like that - its going to the park I loath - I do it but I find it so tedious

competition is a mixed selfish blessing.

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! Park I can cope with but only if I am feeling like some exercise - my DS will only go on the swing. For an hour. If I take him off it he stands in the park looking at me while I say 'how about the slide/climbing frame/roundabout...' in an increasingly higher pitched voice.

I'm the same with puzzle games.

Jigsaws with 4 pieces? Puhleeze

No you won't do your child any damage by not doing it. You might be doing him good by showing him that even Mummy sometimes doesn't want to be a complete walkover.

You see TW that is encouraging but I find it hard to say 'I don't want to' to him because I expect him not to say that to me about things. Also because we've put so much emphasis on him asking nicely for things, when he does I kind of feel like I have to do whatever it is...

YANBU
I also can't stand it

Well say "no thank you DS. I'd rather do X" if you can't bear to tell him you don't want to.
Do you think that not being able to say he doesn't want to do something might not be a good thing later in his life? If you teach him that he should feel obliged to do things he'd rather not, and that saying "I don't want to" is somehow "bad" or not allowed, that could have repercussions later on (for want of a better phrase)

scrappy, thats so funny

I hate playing with toys, I wont do it

but love a good run and a bit of park time

there you go

PomBear is right,
At some point, if he hasn't already, he's going to say, "I don't want to".
If you want to see it positively it shows a growing independence which can only lead to being able to play toys without your input, Yay all round!

I could never do the "let's pretend we're soldiers" stuff either when mine were little. Marble runs and lego and building trainsets - yes, I could do all that. I could spend hours on the perfect wooden track layout. But that whole suspension of disbelief thing - can't do it. This is why I'm crap at acting and at crap at lying, and I suspect it's why I can never enjoy fantasy world books.

I hate it too - and I am a childminder LOL

I always join in though with a smile on my face and a cheery voice because they love it so much :) and of course it helps that I am getting paid for it - I was much less enthusiastic with my own boys haha

Oh I can't stand it, it's boring, repetitive and tiring. Unfortunately it doesn't stop when they go to school, but at least you get a break! My DS is 5 and still insists on role-playing games. Usually it involves sword fights or fighting pretend dragons or dinosaurs. God it's tedious!

I hate pretend play where I have to be the voice if a toy but will gladly make a Pratt if myself crawling round the floor being a dog with my kids or chasing them being the monster/giant etc.
Also hate the park. Mostly because my two DC inevitably head in opposite directions leaving me running laps of the park making sure theyre ok/pushing the swing/roundabout/bouncing the seesaw!

YABU but only because I love it! I've got an awesome captain barnacles voice, I'm a dab hand at flying the sofa to America and I'm the lickiest dog around!

Just let go and enjoy yourself! I find a child's imagination much more fun than any structured game.

I hate it, too. And I am a childminder!!!

I do it on my terms mostly.

"Ok ds, but I'm the Octonaut who's mumsnetting working on the computer"

"I'm the Cloud Baby who's reading her book"

"I'm the pirate who's sitting down with a cup of tea and a biscuit."