...to HATE pretend play?!

[Randomname85]

Am I?! Tell me I’m not the only one. Any sort of ‘mummy you be this and I’ll be that’ - I cannot bear it! Baking, drawing, anything else but if I hear the words ‘mummy let’s play frozen/paw patrol/moana’ I can’t help but internally make this face 😖

I think lockdown has only exacerbated my hatred of it.

I hate it too. I say "No thanks, but I love you" I give them a cuddle and get back to whatever I was doing.

Hate it.... just set the activity up and sit near them and have a cuppa. At the start they make such a drama but eventually will get used to it and better at playing by themselves. Mine not very independent or imaginative but I just can't do this so have made this the rule and as long as I'm nearby they will get on with it. It is good for them. Happy to do all the other stuff..

Yep hate it too. Spent varying levels of time on it over the years, but we have two girls only 16 months apart, so now insist they to do this kind of play together!
Like others have said, there is no memory of my mum or dad doing these kind games with me, however now they are grandparents, they will literally spend hours with our girls playing shops, mummies and babies and any other god awful version of role play games! So as well as insisting they play together, i also say 'grandma and grandpa will play that with you when you next see them'. I stick to craft and games - much more bearable.

Hate it. Thankfully my first two are only 13 months apart so I've never had to as there's always a willing sibling around to play games like this with.

I hate it too so I refuse to do it. Same with sodding crafts. Noting worse. However...

1. I'm a person with likes and dislikes. I am allowed to say no to things, just like DD is. It does her no harm to understand this.
2. If I forced myself to play along, I would be hating every moment and it wouldn't be fun for either of us.
3. I do plenty of things with her that I genuinely like, e.g. baking, Lego, colouring, etc.

I'll only play pretend play games where I get to lie down and perhaps get an accidental massage.

I hate it, I never am able to mind read what I'm supposed to be doing. DH is far more patient and plays lots of role play games with him.

My mum and dad never did it with me and I like to think I'm fine. I do plenty of other things with him and he is able to role play brilliantly on his own and with peers/siblings.

I think it's worse when the suggestion comes from DP...

My kid never asked me to do this. Ever. We're cut from the same cloth thank fuck. I happen to have a vivid imagination in certain circumstances but I never liked pretend play even as a kid, for the same reasons I hate it now - other kids telling me what to imagine and how to act. I was, admittedly, not great fun in the playground. Preferred boy games to a certain extent, but eventually found individuals who were similar to me and liked, for example, making little burrows for tiny toys to live in. The making of the burrows was the point, not the precursor to play.

@BabloHoney

In our house, “mummy will you play with me?” basically translates as “mummy can I boss you about and tell you you’re doing it all wrong for half an hour?”

Exactly the same here! Glad it's not just mine!

Oh its horrendous. I stopped worrying when I was constantly told I wasn't doing it right...so I figure I'm saving them the hassle of training me.

I am quite happy to be anything that involves my role being sat in the armchair with my tea though. Although that does mean I am made the fat controller more often than not . I can live with that.

I generally spend the time musing on whether I should correct the fat shaming in Thomas the tank engine....does anyone else wonder why they haven't renamed the controller ?

You're with the wrong DP then TwoLeftSocksWithHoles!
Now that is role play I DO like !

Being corrected all the time used to wind me up

"OK Mummy, you can be a princess, what colour dress would you like, Princess Mummy?"

"Oh I think I'd like a red dress"

"No Mummy, here's your dress, it's blue"

Why the fuck did you bother asking then, you little tyrant?

I thought the fat controller was now Mr Topham Hat Shiny?

Ditto! My son has worked out that I'm shit at it and don't enjoy it. I'm happy playing board games, cards, reading books etc but I'm crap at make believe things

@miamarshmallows

Well I'm bloody fed up with being Postman Pat's wife, and his bloody black and white cat can just sod off.

@PeskyRooks

I thought the fat controller was now Mr Topham Hat Shiny?

Oh really? That's good, I've often thought it was a very unfair moniker. I mean he was on the husky side but terribly discriminatory to use it as his name.

When mine were little I would join in with them, but as soon as they started bossing me around, I would tell them that I would play their game, but they couldn't tell me what to do or say. I'd just say, "No, I'm not doing it like that." They soon learned that if they wanted me to carry on playing they had to accept it! Perhaps I was just a mean mum .

I don’t do it. I’m channelling an 80s mum vibe, but with less shouting and no smacking. I didn’t have three kids in four years to do role play, so they go off and do their own thing.

With younger ones I have been known to play hospitals and I just lie prone on the sofa. I don’t mind that one

Yes! One of DDs favourite games. As is 'putting everyone to bed' including all her soft toys and me. Literally I lie on the sofa and she puts a blanket on and turns out the lights. It's the best game

I used to make us play “The Tiger who came to Tea” - basically it was sitting and having tea (and pretending a tiger cake etc) but it fooled them I was playing role play when they were younger!

This too shall pass... but yes, it seems interminable at the time. Some of DDs games had a cast of extras 'played' by some of her favourite toy dogs, so not only did I have to remember a few dozen toy dog names but also extra names for a dozen or so.
Definitely try to steer yourself towards a role which allows you to sit on the sofa and drink tea, or do the garden.

DD also plays a game where she offers you 'milk or water?' like they do at mealtimes at her nursery. I'm not allowed to request milk though, I'm only allowed water and she always has milk.

I haven't read the full thread, popped on during a quick break, but please tell me how to make it stop without the child defaulting to tv or whinging? If I play with him he's happy and lovely. If I try and extricate myself he immediately starts to whine and ask for TV. My other child could play happily alone. My 4 year old will not.

Suggestions please! I hate to play power rangers, hate it hate it!!

Same OP, I have no imagination 😆 I much prefer an activity, like puzzles or colouring but I like it even more when they play with each other and I don't have to get involved!

I hated all that stuff too when DS1 was small. Mummy, I'll be Lightning McQueen/Thomas the Tank Engine/a teacher (the worst) and you be (insert hopeless loser here). DS2 was thankfully never too fussed about pretend play.

Not quite the same, but DS1 loved vehicles of all kinds and we had to make up stories about what they were doing. I'm not completely lacking in creativity, but beyond driving, parking, digging, picking up accident victims (depending on the vehicle obviously!), I couldn't think of much. I did like building ramps and seeing which car would crash and burn first or just generally racing them or discussing which one had the best wheels etc, so I often diverted him towards something like that after a while