Is this normal? My 5 year old playing

[Sleepysaurus2]

I have a 5 year old child and she plays in a very specific and repetitive way. Every game involves introducing the characters in the same format. The game never really progresses from there. She may move the game along a little for a few minutes but it seems to be all about the introduction which is the same every time. This is what it’s like (all of it is what she says):

”We need to do names, numbers, phones and watches!”

”this is Freya, she is 15, she’s a teenager, she has a purple phone and a sparkly watch.”

“this is Poppy, she’s 14, she’s a teenager, she’s a little sister, she has a blue phone and a pink watch.”

”This is Petal. She is 17, she’s a big sister, she has a yellow phone and a red watch.”

It’s this on repeat all day with every single game she plays. If I start playing without this introduction, she said, “mummy! We haven’t done names, numbers, phones or watches yet!”

It feels very repetitive and I’m wondering if it’s quite usual. I’d say she’s been doing this for about a year now. By the way, she doesn’t have a phone or a watch! It seems to be linked with her fascination with teenagers.

My DS would reenact the beginning of Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures over and over again! Same words and same actions, you could throw him off, he would just go back to beginning and start again if you did. Age 7 he plays the same football themed game in bed every night with teddies! I am not the slightest bit worried concerns that it’s isn’t usual behaviour.

My DDs both did this - like if playing with Barbies they would all need names, ages etc sorted before the game could begin.

Different games....but

I have to play "the news", "museum" "mummy, mummys friend and baby" like this . on repeat. All the time.

Dd dictates my lines and directs me.i also get "notes" if my performance isnt up to snuff

I remember doing this! My sister and I would play with a couple of sisters down the road. We'd spend literally hours setting up an elaborate game of "beauty salon" with so much thought about who is who and what do they look like and what do they say and what will they do in the game. But we rarely if ever got round to actually doing the "beauty treatments" - I remember reflecting on this at one point and almost wondering why it was always like this. We couldn't seem to help it. It was like we fell into a trance of setting the game up and in actual fact it was the whole point, we just didn't realise it at the time.

Names, numbers, phones and watches- it sounds really funny and cute to me, but I can appreciate it’s getting tedious for you by now. For what it’s worth my DD is also enthralled by the concept of teenagers

My 5 year old is very repetitive with his playing and he is autistic, he has many other needs though so if this is your only concern I wouldn’t worry about this at all.

Can I ask, are the details like names/ phones etc always the same or does she change them up? If it was my son he would say the exact same names, phones and watches every time, there’d be no variation.

if it’s just the format she likes keeping the same, I wouldn’t worry about that at all, lots of children enjoy that kind of thing, I certainly did when I was little!

I laughed so hard at the Andy’s dinosaur adventures, thank goodness because we are hot in this phase of the intro music and I was becoming concerned, hours spent crafting DIY gizmos!

My 6 year old never seems to get past deciding character names & ages, never seems to actually play anything just decides names and ages then changes it a few times then moves on to something else. There's actually an episode of Bluey where they pretty much do the same. It must be "playing"

Does she vary the names, colours etc.? Is it a YouTube thing? For a year, I think that's quite a long time and she may be a little quirky but it's all part of the fun of being a parent! (My DD had an extra imaginary 'mother' for a while, who allowed her to do whatever she wanted or even suggested things 'mother says I should go to bed later' which was a bit weird at I was her actual mum and did not agree with DD's 'mother' quite frequently).

Okay, this is reassuring.

@PeanutCat1 for a long time, it was exactly the same sentence every time. Now, she switches the colour, age etc up but it has to be a name, number or colour on her “list” so if I say a name that isn’t on her list she’ll say, “that isn’t one of my names!”

@PrincessOfPreschool definitely not a YouTube thing as she’s never seen it!

I hate rigid play like this. My DC do it and I cannot help myself ruin it. "This Barbie is Denise, she has a big watch and a pink coat...but then got a job as a crocodile hunter so had to ditch the pink and was doomed to a life of wearing khaki green and brown. A crocodile ate her watch but said it was tasty"