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?

This is hilarious needs to go into classics

DS chases us in a circuit around our downstairs with an old bubble wand and turns us into dinosaurs, lions, dragons etc. I'm too fat to run and I certainly can't run and roar at the same time. I won't even start on what happens if we run the wrong way (anticlockwise, always anticlockwise).

Today dd (4) has been a teenager staying out late at school to make stew, there were multiple phone calls telling me about the stew and its importance.

I dont think she knows much about teenagers

Hope this goes in classics. Top gear, jam, stew, this entire thing is hysterical. Had to stuff my fist in my mouth not to wake OH up laughing! Either you PP are stand up level funny or your kids are just naturally hysterical and you're good at conveying it!

I miss playing hairdressers. Even being wacked over the head with a hairbrush was strangely soothing.

It’s the ‘pretend you’re my Mummy, and I’m your little DC’

I DONT NEED TO PRETEND, that is actually real life!

My eldest was the most imaginative kid I've known! I had to open with fake key and all, his How to Train Your Dragon Museum and run it in his absence while he was away on holiday, which basically meant I had to sit there like a nob in the front room, feigning very loud enthusiasm (in my pyjamas with coffee number one of the morning's typical 500) about his AMAZING museum while he was off having a poo (holiday). I ran so many shops over the course of his early childhood.

Fast forward to my youngest who is on the autism spectrum and doesn't do imaginative play at all. It's really weird because as draining as I've always found imaginative play and as much as I've mumbled, "Oh ffs, I don't want to be Patrick to your SpongeBob AGAIN," one of my first flags with DC3 was that I had no role! I wasn't needed. The theatre was closed- the stage and curtain taken down permanently. I could drink my coffee in total peace and it was oddly unsettling.

I hate role playing. I have no imagination.

This video sums it up.

I have 5 DDs. Role play is my life . The worst part is not being a mind reader and getting in trouble when you say the wrong thing.

Personally i think Lego is worse. DS2 screams BUILD A HELICOPTER at me and has a design in his head which would rival the most sophisticated engineering and I have just a box of of random bits and 30 seconds to hastily assemble something while he is wailing NOOOOO. THAT'S . NOT. RIGGGHHHHHHT!

Haha my DD is in this phase. She picks a persona every morning, often a Paw Patrol character and I get one too. Sometimes it's another character from TV or a book, so I often forget who she is. Woe betide me forgetting because if I do she throws herself on the floor and screams 'I not Skye, I Owlette!!' Same if anyone uses her real name. When we're going into preschool I have to remind her to pretend she's her real name while there.

When we're going into preschool I have to remind her to pretend she's her real name while there.

Very familiar! DD is allowed to be whoever she wants before preschool and on the walk, but as soon as we get there she has to be herself. "I'm Lightning McQueen, but I'm DD on the inside. When I'm at preschool I have to just be DD, but I'm still Lightning McQueen!"

And when I pick her up I have to remember who she was/who I was... That is if she doesn't come out and immediately say "I'm McQueen, you're Mater!" before she's even thrust her bags at me.

And when she changes who she is without telling me... "Come on then McQueen." "...NO MUMMY I'M DADDY PIG!!!!!!!"

My grandson is 5 and I've had to play pretend with him for 3 years now. I'm the only one who will so it's every time were together.
Over time, he's gone through, The Hulk, The Avengers, Batman, Lord of the Rings and now we have to re-enact X box games.
I have no idea what we're doing most of the time but he seems happy to direct me.
As much as I enjoy it, I'm hoping it will get less soon??

This morning my husband and dd have been taking it in turns to be Norman and fireman Sam and rescuing eachother, thank god for weekends!

I was happily doing housework this morning only to hear the words ‘mummy shall we have a pirate fight?’

Today we have been enacting the Highway Rat. Ds has been jumping out at me and robbing me of various food stuffs whilst I claim to have no buns or biscuits.....

YANBU, if I have to be Gecko from PJ Masks or a member of the Paw Patrol one more time I may have a stroke.

DD7 thankfully is happy most of the time playing by herself. Quiet often Harry Potter at the moment. But details of school games often make me lol.

Me; What did you play at lunchtime DD?
DD: Bars, I was one of the customers and L was the barman. The only food was curly fries and there was a fine range of wines and beer.
Me:

DD: we played Pharaohs today at lunchtime (DD goes to a Catholic school), but we were nice to the Israelites. Story of Joseph clearly being the focus in RE at the time.

Ah yes I remember those days. My eldest used have me acting out 'rusty and the boulder' from Thomas the tank engine and I deviated from the script I'd get told off.

But my dd was definitely the bossiest. Omg the tedium!!!! Bless them!

I thought we’d dodged this bullet with DS1 as he has suspected ASD and is an extraordinarily literal child. He’s nearly 4 and for the last couple of years there have been many exchanges along the lines of ‘Roar, I’m a lion.’ ‘No, you’re Mummy.’ ‘Ok, I’m pretending to be a lion.’ ‘...No. You’re Mummy. ’

However in the last few weeks it’s like a switch has flipped and all he wants to do is play pretend. I went out for a run yesterday and came back to find a slightly manic-looking DH who had been forced to be a passenger in a train heading for some cliffs the entire time I was gone. They kept being rescued by various members of the Paw Patrol only to find themselves instantly in peril once again. DS also likes asking me to pretend to be a climbing frame, which basically involves sitting on the sofa while he repeatedly scrambles up me and jumps off. It’s not hugely comfortable but at least I can sit and read while he does it .

@AveAtqueVale my eldest (also asd) was exactly the same. Repeated what he saw in programs but never I'd imaginitive play. Was a right shock when I had two more that expected me to everything from fucking superman to maleficent. That and reading books with all the 'voices' woe betide if I got it wrong one time!

My daughter is 5 and likes to pretend she's a pony. I have to 'ride' her - she goes on all fours and uses a karate belt as reins. Last night I had to brush her and put horseshoes on her. It goes on for ages! My son is completely different - he's never wanted to play with me in this way.

DH and I have completely reached our limit for DD’s irritating mums-and-dads baby voice but poor MIL has not yet learned to refuse (I do tell her to Just Say No...).

MIL has been with us all over Easter, we’ve been rained in 90% of the time, and I am exhausted. DD has no appetite for crafts/board games/anything else when there is someone willing to play pretend with her. So I have to join in otherwise it’s basically sit around while MIL does all the work playing, which I don’t quite have the nerve for...

It’s just so fucking BORING! I can’t wait till my lovely MIL goes home and I can return to the usual rule of only pretending IF I can do my own stuff at the same time!

only pretending IF I can do my own stuff at the same time!

This ^. Have you ever tried getting in first? Get out vacuum cleaner, or wash surfaces and say look darling mummy is smoothing giant heaps of snow over the lucky mountains, or some such guff. If you children are anything like I was, they will wonder off to do their own, much better games.

Always wondered why my mother did this, think i know now.

This.