...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.

PMSL at some of these comments

So glad i'm not alone in this, I swear I hear 'mommy lets play party dolls' in my sleep, just the thought of it has me rocking back and forth shudders

Anything, Anything but fucking PARTY DOLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@FoxgloveBee

I find it unbearable! 😂 I read something about children needing your attention during play for a set amount of time so I started setting a timer for 30 mins, right before I start cooking dinner.

It doesn't help that she plays one character when I have 10-15, all with different voices. I also have to control multiple barbie dogs who have their own personalities. Even 30 mins of that is enough to bring on a headache.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE 🍷

This is me! Right down to having to operate 15 other characters, all with different voices (I'm crap at voices). Except I'm a lot less generous with the timer...

I tend to work best in 10-15min intervals, with an agreed activity that will be done straight afterwards - 'and when the timer goes off, that's time for teeth and bed' or whatever... It works so well now that DS leapt into bed last night when the timer went off without even asking for his usual 'just a few more minutes...'

I also recently started pre-empting DS by asking if I could play with him, because 'I have ten minutes before my next call'... that little piece of manipulation has worked wonders, which I should feel guilty about but it makes him feel wanted and gets me off the hook later...

My OH is much better at it than me so I do feel a total failure and now my DD goes to him for such things.

It's just so mind numbing. But I do baking, playdough, out to the park etc actual activities.

Fwiw my oh spends a lot of time lying on the floor under a blanket....

The one and only time I tried (last year when DD1 went back to school and I was left with DD2 to entertain it's ok, who wants to earn money anyway? I agreed to play 'school' with the teddy/bunny/assorted dragons and other animals collection. DD2 was the teacher; I was the TA.

We called register, started reading a book to the children and then DD2 announces the fire alarm has gone off. We take the class to a safe place and watch as the school burns to the ground.

EPIC

Aaarrgghh YANBU OP.

Their little face when you say 'yes ..... but only for 10 mins because mummy soon has to '

It lights up and i feel the familiar triple surges of love for her, guilt that i hate playing this and the urge to run screaming out of the house.

My older 3 DDs are all less than 2 years apart and they played all this together. DD4 is much much younger and more like an only child in this respect - so i feel obliged.

ALTHOUGH having said that i'm an only, played all day alone with no probs and NEVER expected either of my parents to entertain me. I would have got short shrift if i asked! And i'm ok.

It's a while ago now, but I remember DH being a stand in Girl's World head and I loved a bit of Lego. That's it though, no role play ever.

I’m not convinced that it benefits children to play “pretend” with adults. We lose the knack at a certain point in our development. They need to be playing with other children.

I remember reading once that hopscotch had been passed down as a game, in pretty much the same form since Roman times, but adults mostly misremember the rules. This sort of knowledge passes from worldly wise 6year olds to naive 4 year olds without adults being involved. In fact it’s generally better without adults.

Obviously lockdown has screwed up things in a bit, but in general, I think it’s ok to opt out of the hell that is pretend play.

I used to play schools with DD who was the class teacher. I used to volunteer to be the headteacher which involved me sitting in the office on my computer. I can highly recommend this role. The most I ever had to do was issue a punishment to the odd naughty child.

Oh I love it, but I also enjoy role play exercises on training events etc and I know most people would rather chew their own arm off! DH came home from work last Friday and we were being dinosaurs, I was the stegosaurus and DS was the T Rex, there had been an incident with a volcano

THIS

I’ve had proper mummy guilt about this so glad I’m not the only one! Dollies and doing their voices etc I like to do something with my brain and engage that way - puzzles,baking, making things, teaching and learning activities, colouring etc. I wondered if it’s because I’ve lost my creativity in my old age !

@elfycat

The one and only time I tried (last year when DD1 went back to school and I was left with DD2 to entertain it's ok, who wants to earn money anyway? I agreed to play 'school' with the teddy/bunny/assorted dragons and other animals collection. DD2 was the teacher; I was the TA.

We called register, started reading a book to the children and then DD2 announces the fire alarm has gone off. We take the class to a safe place and watch as the school burns to the ground.

EPIC

/\ THIS /\

It's always either Elsa + Anna and all the rest of the frozen cast, or Scooby Do and the mystery gang and the monsters (action figures).

DD is always either just Elsa, if it's that, or just Daphne if it's scooby do.

So: for frozen I have to be:
Anna, EggNog (or what ever his name is), Ryder, Hans, Christov, Olaf and Sven. Bloody all of them

and for scooby i have to be:
Fred, Shaggy, Scooby, Velma AND ABOUT 15 MONSTERS. With voices.

I can do Shaggy (Hey Scooooob!) but i'm really shite at Sooby :(

When I had no children I was happy to play these games with my niece and nephews and my BIL was happy to play with my daughter's before he had children.
However playing for one afternoon once a week is different to being asked every hour every single day.
I've got two who are too old for pretend play abd one too young (at the moment).
Perhaps I can get my own back by getting my daughter's to do pretend play with their brother when he asks.
Yes, it's the worst type of play for any parent.

It's truly hideous and I think I must have blocked it out (my DDs are late teens now). My god-daughter stayed overnight (pre lockdown) and I was up at 6.30am, playing 'cats'. I had to crawl around on the floor … this was before even one cup of coffee

My toddlers are going through a doctor phase and it is undoubtedly the BEST pretend play I've ever known. I lie face down on the rug and they drill and saw my body parts until their hearts are content.I just have to relax and suggest body parts that need fixed. It is bliss.

Thank goodness I'm not the only one! Can't stand it.
DD was absolutely obsessed with playing schools for at least a year. I had to be the TA and the children (teddies/dolls). But whatever I said/did was never right. Infuriating.
DS its superheroes but whoever I am and no matter what I do - I'm never allowed to win the fight! So annoying.
Both are now currently playing superheroes and barbies together so I'm actually having a break. Supposed to be home schooling...

And we can't even do it properly. Walking with my 5 year old, she is holding a pretend lead with two pretend puppies... I pat the air, "nice doggy" to be told with a disparaging look "the dog isn't here! he ran off there!" points

Ahhrgh

@Randomname85

That’s longer than the actual film 😂

For all those saying their own parents never played these games when they were kids and it didn't bother them/hasn't affected them... why are you putting yourself through the torture of doing it for your kids?

Kids need to learn how to play independently. They can indulge the mind-numbing fantasy play with siblings, friends or at school and clubs.

I agree, it's painful. Adults never used to get dragged into every aspect of childhood. That seems to be a recent development and it's producing needy, whinging children who can't play alone for more than 5 minutes.

Flipping heck loads of these are my DD3 through and through! I'm so glad other parents struggle with it too!
Every morning at the moment I have to be mummy cat and she is baby cat ... Involves lots of being told to purr and hiss and eat pretend food and crawl around the floor til my back aches
Sometimes think if anyone was to look through the front window they would be having a right laugh at what we have to do to keep this kid happy!

Oh no way.
There is a reason I had two quite close together.
I'm never allowed to add my own character development so end up getting shouted at. I avoid as much as possible.

Like others I don't mind playing doctors where I'm the patient ill in bed and I can't move.

I hate it. And I hated it when I was a kid. I'd rather color or read or build with Lego.

YANBU to hate pretend play but YABU to not do it with your child. It is a parent’s duty.

I’m kidding; I hate it too. Hide in a cupboard?

Pretend play is why siblings exist, I said I'd never go through childbirth again and I was serious, then my child asked me to play with him and I found out what real pain was. I'd have loved at that point to just break my body again giving him a playmate that wasn't me.

It didn't happen my best friend had a baby instead.