I've found out what hell is is and it's your kid wanting to play pretend ALL the time

[cabb]

Dd is 2yr5m, is very outgoing and sociable and has never been able to entertain herself but I've kind of accepted this now, but her latest thing is playing pretend and it's ALL she wants to do.
Shall we play bricks? No, be the mermaid!
Shall we do some drawing? No mummy be the mermaid!
How about some puzzles? BE THE MERMAID

Oh god, I mean I actually don't mind doing a bit of role play but it's definitely the most draining and pre 9am and after being up in the night with her little brother it's really hard to throw myself into the acting required to BE THE MERMAID.

AIBU?

YANBU.... it is indeed the 7th circle of hell. Can you engineer some playdates and let another kid "be the mermaid"?

Omg I don't even know how you would start to be a mermaid!

Oh god it's my idea of hell. Luckily ds1 had zero imagination and then ds2 had ds1 to play with so dodged the bullet.

I do watch in fascinated horror as my friend seems to play pretend for what seems like hours with her dd (she says coffee and chocolate are the key to survival)

Yes I've found coffee, chocolate and cbeebies are my lifesavers.

My dd likes to give all the commentary of role play....telling me what i am doing thinking should say etc

Arrrggg! I had to be the baby dragon puppet Norbert from Harry Potter for about 3 weeks solid. It’s only a very short time in their lives and they will move on. I’m sure I’ll look back and weep for these days. But yes it’s very annoying.

Ha @Afreshcuppateaplease I can see this being the next development! She's very bossy!

Oh yes Dd has just started this phase and I hate it so much. Play with me mumma.

I’m sure I’ll look back and weep for these days

Yes I have to keep telling myself this when we're all aboard the pirate ship for the millionth time.

Get her a doctor's kit and train her to be the doctor. I quite like being the patient. i appear to have taught DD that doctor's give foot massages at the end, idea came from a book i was reading

Oh yes doctors is one of the easier ones! Especially as it means I get to lie down a lot.

Oh yes this is absolute hell. Both DDs loved role play. Thankfully they have grown up a bit now. But Jeez - it's the 'mummy imagine you come to my cafe and say ....' and if you go off script one teensy tiny bit you get a bollocking.

I second getting them to play doctors or hairdressers as you can usually lie down or sit still.

I think I'll add the foot massage bit now too

Haha! This has really made me chortle.

My daughter is only 5 months but I’m sure I have this to look forward to in a couple of years. I used to look after an autistic boy who always wanted us to pretend we lived in a land made of Velcro, so we had to make the Velcro noise every time we did anything .

I also used to make my dad (with grey hair and a moustache) pretend to be my baby, I would tell him to go to bed and he would actually fall asleep and snore on my bed.

This is why I have more than one child ! I bloody hate ‘pretend’ play, I’d rather garden with them, cook, do painting, even get chuffing glitter out.

Luckily we have more than one and they happily play mummies and babies for days at a time!

I feel your pain...

Or get them to do the washing up at the ‘cafe’. Towels and warm soapy water in a bowl on the floor, tea set in. Buys you enough time for a cup of actual tea.

Do you self-ID as a mermaid?

Pretending to be cleaners? Give them a duster and point them at the skirting boards?

I didn't mind with the first one as it was a novelty and I quite liked playing with the dolls and kitchen etc with my dd. By the time ds was that age the novelty had worn off and I had no interest in cars or castles or action figures. He had little interest in other stuff. He was lucky to get any imaginative play. I did know all of the Ben 10/power rangers/arsenal players names though, even if my actual reenacting wasn't very enthusiastic.

How sexist and sad am I?

I didn't have this with my DB's, I've got a DS now, I expect he'll be like this!

I want to be a mermaid

Mermaids lie on sofas and pretend they are on a rock , and have their hair brushed 😊😂😂😂😂😂😊 grab a coffee and enjoy .

This is why I have more than one child ! I bloody hate ‘pretend’ play

I'm already trying to get her to play with her 10m old brother, he's not very good at following her instructions quite yet

Thankfully my twins were the only ones into role play and they had each other so I got left out of it! You should have had twins.

Pretending to be cleaners? Give them a duster and point them at the skirting boards?

This one worked for a while, she got wise to it unfortunately