When should 'let's pretend' games stop?

[OrmIrian]

My DCs have always played pretend games. I thought it was a good thing. But DS#1 is now 11 and yesterday when we had a day out he and DD were playing together (something involving meerkats ) and we met a friend with her 2 boys who are a similar age to mine. When she realised what my children were doing she raised her eyebrowns and made some comment along the lines of 'mine gave that up years ago'. Which might explain of course why a visit to Glastonbury Abbey bored her's rigid and why mine were happy as larry.

But is it odd. For an 11yr old?

eyebrows....

I have no idea if it is unusual or not at that age but shows great imagination and that is a good thing surely?

How old is your DD?

I think it is great if children can play imaginary games - esp in this day and age with so much tv and computer and games console distraction.

no, i think its good.

dd1 (8yr) was never into imaginiation games, dd3 (3) is very into them. dd2(5) plays imagination games with dd3.

DD is 9. DS#1 is 5 and sometimes joins in.

I think its fantastic for an 11 year old to have an active imagination and it would not have made my eyebrows so much as twitch.

dd still does them at 11

and older friend of hers still enjoys them ( she is 14) is a post modernist 'ironic' sort of a way!

Plenty of people never have given them up hence the prevelance of reenactment/wargames/roleplay and all that kinda stuff. Dss was still playing imagination games at 11 and hopefully dd will be as well.

Think that's perfectly fine and a good thing. As tarantula says, lots of adults like those 'escape from reality' things too!

So do her kids play computer games? If so, they are doing exactly the same thing as your kids except they are using someone else's imagination instead of their own.

Not odd at all. I think it's odd that you think it's odd

DD(8) and our neighbours daughter (10) still play lots of imaginary games - nurseries, cafe, schools etc. They sometimes even rope in another neighbours son who is 9.

sorry, pressed post too soon...meant to add that no, I think its normal and lovely for them to till be playing imaginary games at 11

I don't think it's odd. Surely it means they are able to entertain themselves without relying on someone/thing else. I was still into imaginary play in Yr 7. I was a great story writer as well and loved drama so it's all linked. Can see my ds being like this as he doesn't do RL at the mo .

I think that it's sad that some people want their children to grow up so quickly. I wonder if your friend's children gave them up out of choice or whether they were encouraged.

DS1 still plays like this, not on his own, but with DS2 and DD. It drives me mad sometimes and we can't even go to the shops without some weird parallel existance going on around us - oh, look at the basket of cucumbers, well they're really the eggs of a xl?axrhis beast so we all have to run away, really fast NOW! or more surreally DD is Robbie Williams Angel, and she's going to catch you (although I think that's from some CBBC show called Heds )

It probably is why we also can do things like walk around woods for 3 or 4 hours, or do formal gardens - they can entertain themselves.

I can remember playing 'let's pretend' up to the age of about 12/13. Certainly once I started secondary school. We had a small hill on our school field and I can remember charging up and down it with two friends, being Charlie's Angels! Encourage it, it's very healthy.

juule - I don't really think it's odd. I like it (keeps them happy for hours). I was just enquiring whether it is unusual. I have no experience of boys (my elder DB was 6 yr older than me and away at boarding school at this age). Much of the time he does 'normal' boy things - skateboards, bikes, football, PS2 etc, but he still loves pretending, unlike (as far as I can tell) all his friends.

I think it's brilliant. Mine have stopped (they are 9 and 12) but if I met a friend's children of the same age playing a let's pretend game, I would be impressed and a little envious.

Why should it ever stop? Whenever we read a novel, etc., we are entering a world of let's pretend. Your dcs might grow up to be novelists or film directors.

The only odd thing in this post is your friend's reaction.

If mine ISN'T playing imagination games still when she's 11, I'm sending her back for a refund!!!!

Ormirian, this is a subject close to my heart. I was playing pretend games at 11, and I believe that children have a last burst of pretending about this age, which is very vivid, and given that the chidl is older, they can have some fantastic games. (we spent the whole summer with a boat in the orchard playing swallows and amazons I seem to recall).

my eldest 2 are 11 and 10, and they pretend like mad and have fantastic games.
I find it really depressing when someone says on mn, what shall I buy for an 11 yr old, and everyone says, Oh, they arent interested in toys any more, buy makeup. Mine are still playing with toys, they will prob grow out of them in a few months, but I wouldnt have them miss these last years of real childhood for anything.

I think they give it up when they're ready. My ds is 10 and still plays make believe games (often with his teddies!) He's very lucky in that a boy came to his school a few years ago who was just like him, so they play their teddy games together. All of their teddies have a personality and names. Some are naughty etc. When they go to each other's houses they bring their teddies with them. Wonder when your friend's children stopped believing in Father Christmas?

at secondary school we used to do lots of let's pretend - we used to be the A team
really not in any way odd.

...Emily Bronte carried on until she was 23 or so!

lots of people make a living out of it, they are called actors
and don't we all do a little daydreaming?