I do. I wish I could do more of it, actually. I'm a SAHM and sometimes I'm rushing around doing the boring but necessary household crap, and feeing badly because I really would rather be playing.

My favorite is just getting down on their level and letting them guide the play. I love seeing how they think, what they can do, what makes them smile and even what makes them lose their shit.

Not to say that I don't get annoyed with some of their stuff-my youngest always wants me to tell him a story involving whatever random stuffed animal or person he's into that week. Fine to make up a story once...but he wants one like 24 times a day and that play I could do without.

It gets annoying, but my 3 yo is so funny with all her silly (and highly repetitive) pretend games. And when I can take the time to just sit on the floor with my kids, I'm always glad I did. I'm not afraid to tell my kids to stop being annoying, though, so it rarely gets to be too much for me to deal with happily.

I can push her on the swing for two hours straight. But other than that, not really. She's 2, so she cant even articulate what she's doing very well when she's playing. This is half the point of having a nanny. If I didn't hate kids it would be the point of having a second child - built in playmate.

I hate it. I wish I could only do meals, bath, etc. but as he gets older there is less of former and more of the latter. Didn't see it coming...

Yes, I love seeing how their minds work - in short stints at least. Repetitive pretend play gets old pretty fast. My favorite is playing with legos, where I can build something cool while sort of paying attention to what they are doing.

No

Depends. Does he want to actually play with me or just sit there while he plays by himself. I can do the former but the latter is pretty dull.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. But not for long periods of time.

This. I can pretend for a few minutes. I prefer to read to them or play a board game with clear instructions, versus just having my DD boss me around telling me which disney evil queen I get to portray that day and exactly what I should say. OP, what do you like to do with them? Focus on those things (cook with them, do playdough, read, whatever YOU like) and focus on those so you don't have to do the annoying things all the time.

Lol I thought my son was the inky one who was so bossy like that! Fortunately, he grew out of it by kindergarten.

What does "inky" mean? I'm not familiar with it in that context.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. But not for long periods of time.

This. I can pretend for a few minutes. I prefer to read to them or play a board game with clear instructions, versus just having my DD boss me around telling me which disney evil queen I get to portray that day and exactly what I should say. OP, what do you like to do with them? Focus on those things (cook with them, do playdough, read, whatever YOU like) and focus on those so you don't have to do the annoying things all the time.

Lol I thought my son was the inky one who was so bossy like that! Fortunately, he grew out of it by kindergarten.

Honestly? No not really. A few minutes here and there to get them set up with certain things (art projects, side walk chalk, etc.) but I hate crawling around on the floor playing pretend.

I don't mind reading to them though or playing certain board games so we do a lot of that.

Only specific things and only for not so long periods of time.

I like to read to her as much as she wants, I will color for a good amount of time and I will play stickers indefinitely.

For pretend play I can tolerate 5 minutes, maybe. I hate it.

I also dislike when she pretends not to know how to do something, like a puzzle she's done 25 times before. I get very frustrated with "Mommy, I dooooonnnnn'tttt knnnnnoooooooooooooooowwww how to put this piece in."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. But not for long periods of time.

This. I can pretend for a few minutes. I prefer to read to them or play a board game with clear instructions, versus just having my DD boss me around telling me which disney evil queen I get to portray that day and exactly what I should say. OP, what do you like to do with them? Focus on those things (cook with them, do playdough, read, whatever YOU like) and focus on those so you don't have to do the annoying things all the time.

LMAO! I have boys, and honestly, I like playing with race cars and trains. However, I don't think I could do the princess thing.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. But not for long periods of time.

This. I can pretend for a few minutes. I prefer to read to them or play a board game with clear instructions, versus just having my DD boss me around telling me which disney evil queen I get to portray that day and exactly what I should say. OP, what do you like to do with them? Focus on those things (cook with them, do playdough, read, whatever YOU like) and focus on those so you don't have to do the annoying things all the time.

Yes. But not for long periods of time.

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