anyone else with dcs who are compelled to characterise everything and everyone as family members??

[LetThemEatCake]

DD (3y7m) and DS1 (2y3m) are driving me insane with their insistence on characterising everything and everyone as members of our immediate family.

In films: "me be Shrek, you be Fiona, who you be mama?? You be godmother. Who daddy be??"

Then all hell breaks loose if there aren't enough female characters for both dd and I to 'be' someone' or if they can't agree on who should be who.

Toy dinosaurs get lined up and named - Mama, Dada, me, you, baby

Characters in books
Bits of broken biscuit
Monsters and mythical beasts at the exhibition we went to the other day.

you name it.

Even when ds is on the loo, he will name each bit of poo as it hits the water and ain't too happy if he doesn't do 5. It's great when we're in public toilets

I love that they are so into our family but honestly, WTF?? Is this normal?? Anyone else have this??

dd(2.6) says 'that's you mummy' a lot wrt (eg) Mummy Pig, largest of the bath ducks, mother bear in 3 bears, cow at farm with calf etc

I am obv the universal mother

Yes! My DD (2.10) does this often with pencils: daddy is the blue pencil, mummy you be red pencil. She always gets to be pink. Also cutlery where she likes to be the spoon.

She is also obsessed with who is married to who.
Grandma is married to grandad, aunty is married to uncle, but she has a problem with me as of course she is married to daddy (major oedipal complex). I have to be married to variously my brother or the cat!

Be thankful as long as it's only fictional characters! My dd shouted "Daddy, daddy!" at the young assistant in the butcher's. I am an..erhmmm... middle aged Mum, he looked about 17. He blushed very prettily.

Dd1 and DD2 do this all the time-though mainly with books and TV characters, not bits of biscuit and poo! I'm inpressed at your dcs' imaginbation. Mine used to fight over characters but now generally agree to both be the same one if necessary.

I got told that the biggest stacking cup was me today and the smallest one was DD. I thought it was quite cute - haven't got to the naming poos stage yet though

Mine does this! Mostly with inanimate objects like biscuits/bits of Lego. .

My little girl does this too, she was 2 in December. Every man is "Daddy", every lady is "Mummy" amd the grey haired ones are "nanny". The biggest ducks, toys, etc, etc is always the "Daddy one", the second biggest is the "Mummy one" and the smallest is always the "Jessica one". I thought it was just her that did this so quiet relieved when I saw this post. I think its quiet funny but can get a bit embarrasing sometimes when she shouts out "Daddy" at the supermarket to random strangers.

My four year old will hear a story and the n tell the same story except in his story it happened to a family member. He seems not to notice that everyone has just heard the story happening to someone else.

My DD (2.11) does this too! It keeps us amused to see who/what we are on that particular day. At the moment we are letters: I'm X (with an arm-signal), DH and DS are b and d (lowercase). It's quite embarrassing in public and I always feel I have to explain to strangers.

Surely it's just a sign of a good imagination and a recognition of how things/people relate to each other.