To think DDs method of playing is exhausting and to want to know about your 4 and 5 year olds?

[MrsMushroom]

DD is 4....5 in March. She's very lively and her fave form of playing is to think up long, complicated scenarios involving "spies".

If I'm playing with her I'm directed to within an inch of my life....You stand there and then I come along but you DON'T see me....then I poke you in the ribs and you turn this way....not that way...this way and you still cant see me so you say "Huh?" and look around like this.....then you do see me but only after I've gone under the table and stolen all the cushions....

And it goes on and on until she's satisfied then I have to try and remember all the bloody instructions! if I get it wrong she has a mild paddy and we begin again.

She rarely plays with dolls or toys which mean she'll sit alone like puzzles or cars..she prefers physical, action type things like wrestling and hide and seek and as I say, complex adventures she's invented.

Is this normal? I worry about her at school because I can't imagine other 4 and 5 year olds agreeing to this...she seems to have friends but how can I teach her to be more open to others ideas? How does your 4 and 5 year old play?

My dc is like that. When they were younger me and my dh couldn't bare to play the games because it was so exhausting being told we were doing it wrong all the time. Luckily they now have a dc to play with and we do other things with them like painting etc.

I do feel guilty about it though.

I don't feel guilty. I don't remember my mum or dad ever playing with me in that manner. It didn't have any ill effects on me at all. I was a kid, they were adults, end of story.

I am good at reading, jigsaws, a bit of crafty stuff, baking, and going out and being active...but role play and getting down to their level to play cars or dolls or role play games? Nope. It bores me rigid.

Oh God, yes! This thread has made me laugh, my 5 year old DS is so like this.

God forbid if I go off plan. Mummy is NOT allowed to improvise.

yes that does sound like normal 4/5 year old play. The thing I would watch is that your DD isn't too bossy with other children as it can isolate her. We had an awful experience with a very forceful 5 year old who would had to have everything her way each play date.