Do you sometimes pretend for fun?

[Mrsphilmiller]

For instance, if you work in retail, do you pretend you actually work in a hospital and get your tasks done pretending they’re something hospital related?
Another example could be what I was just doing. Cleaning my living/kitchen area, but I was pretending I’m working in a restaurant and getting ready for a busy dinner service.

does anybody else pretend or am I a weirdo? 😵‍💫

Haha whatever gets you through, housework is deadly dull, I usually perfect my Oscar acceptance speech.

I pretend a lot. Always have, never grown out of it. (I am Autistic and waiting on an ADHD assessment). I pretend about work, about relationships..I also imagine things I’m doing as part of a competition like unloading the dishwasher and imagining commentators discussing my strategy as I do it 😂

Kinda, though not this kind of thing.

Sometimes when I go to bed and I'm falling asleep I pretend scenarios that make me really relieved they're not real if that makes sense. So the other night we had an awful night's sleep where toddler just would NOT sleep in the middle of the night and we were exhausted and ended up having to drive home two hours away to get him to sleep in his own bed. So when I went to sleep last night I kinda imagined I was feeling that level of tired but gonna be unable to drift off and get a full night's sleep. Cos it felt nice knowing it wasn't true lol.

Or sometimes when I'm with him on a nice day out in my mind I'll pretend for a moment he's a nephew I have to return later to someone else, because the feeling of going ah no he's my kid is so overwhelmingly wonderful, it just feels so lovely to acknowledge that I get to take him home to our home and see him and care for him every day, if that makes sense?

Loads of people have rich inner lives OP, you're not weird at all!

I love this x

I pretend I'm Kim on 'How Clean Is Your House' and give myself a stern talking too 🤣

Yes, especially on here :-)

*to 🙄

I pretend that my chihuahua pup is really a large breed dog and I'm a giant.
I also pretend that thunder claps are tyrannosaurus rex foot steps a la Jurassic Park

NO! But I'm now gonna start! It sounds delightful. Already envisioning what story I'm gonna make up while I do the ironing this week.

😂Brilliant!

I do! It gets me through the housework. It also helps me to get to sleep if I create a complete fantasy scenario. I have BPD, possibly autism. I don’t know if there is any sort of connection?

I was just reading about motivation strategies for people with ADHD (a possibility I am exploring) and this was suggested as a useful one for engaging with boring but essential tasks.

I do with the cleaning, and outside jobs. Probably more stuff too.

Before I go to sleep I become a character in a novel and change the story. I have been doing this for ages. I have two, one female and one male that I am seriously thinking about writing them up into a new story. Another is one that I think a famous author could use.

On my cycle commute to and from work I have legs of the journey with speed bumps and through leafy parks with windy paths where I’m actually showjumping or riding a cross country course. It helps pass the time.

I do this!! The commentators in my head are always very impressed with my techniques 😆
I used to do it regularly at the supermarket with DD in a sling - when packing the bags I imagined the people in the q were all incredibly impressed and watching how together I was juggling a small baby and all the shopping. Whatever gets us through!

Interesting - I do this a lot and I have ADHD!

At the moment the one that works for me is pretending I'm cleaning the kitchen like I'm filming one of those super soothing Tiktok 'clean with me' videos. I kind of narrate it in my head (or out loud if DH isn't there, haha), and it helps me get it done before I get bored.

I also do a lot of public speaking, award acceptance speeches, and legal defenses for imaginary innocent people in my car... 😅

Love this!

I ‘jump’ hedges and fences when we are out in the car! 😁

Music videos are my pretend thing. Usually when I'm driving but sometimes when I'm just pottering around at home 🙈

I think the "pretending to be an Instagram influencer while doing your makeup" one is quite common 😄

Sometimes when I'm out with my dog I pretend he's just a stray I've found and I get to take him home and keep him. Bit of a childhood fantasy fulfilled, that one!

I'm definitely going to start pretending I'm a chambermaid / chef getting paid to do household chores, though!

I have a whole imaginary life which just bumbles away in the background. I've talked about this on another thread but I can't find it now.

But I also pretend particular scenarios when I'm doing specific things.

Cleaning: I pretend a BBC film crew are doing a fly-on-the-wall documentary about people who changed their lives. I'm featured in the documentary because I gave up my fairly life in the UK to run a 5* beachfront B&B in the South Pacific.

Dog walking: I pretend I'm a former supermodel but now live quite an ordinary life, walking the dog, chatting to neighbours etc.

Walking anywhere: I always have music on, I pretend I'm in the video for that music. There are lots of 90s hip hop music videos featuring a middle-aged white British woman on her way to Morrisons, you know.

At the gym: Pretending I'm not about to die

I also run through scenarios in bed while I'm dropping off to sleep. Mostly about bumping my ex, resigning from my job and buying my dream house.

I have a very active imagination.

I do this but I don't have ADHD. When I'm trying to go to sleep I make up completely fantasy scenarios where I am the heroine. Usually set in a different period in history as I mainly use this when I can't sleep as stressed about something (usually work) so the fantasy scenario has to be completely unrelated to the present reality - helps me switch off when brain is in overdrive.

Also when I'm working out I usually present I'm an Olympic level athlete in some kind of very important race to make me keep trying and power through (obviously I win).

Am actually extremely bored with work at the moment so maybe I'll adopt this fantasy strategy there too.

I don't pretend, exactly, but I do regularly narrate what I'm doing in my head, as if I'm explaining to someone else what I'm doing. I really don't know why! I think I've always done it.

Very intense fantasy life going on here - first Yorkshire lass to win an Oscar, and then turn it down for ethical reasons obvs.

I used to have a physical job with a lot of heavy lifting - I always imagined I was carrying Frodo when he had been stabbed by the wraith.