Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Imagination schmagination

Lately the kid has been really into her imagination.

Which is better, I guess, than being really into the Disney channel or watching the Shrek movies over and over….you know, it's more "creative" and all.

Her newest thing is pretending to be a mermaid.

And not just any ol' "I need a prince to make my life complete Ariel from The Little Mermaid" type of mermaid will do. This girl wants to be the "Barbie bad-ass surfer chick whose mother just happens to be a mermaid and turns into a mermaid when she's 16 and saves mermaid land" type of mermaid.

So every day in the tub it's "Look at my mermaid tail!" or "Mommy! I’m a mermaid now that I'm in the water!"or "I'm saving all the mermaids from the bad lady!" and whatnot. And it occurred to me last night that I don't remember ever pretending that I was a mermaid. I guess because I pretty much knew there was no such thing? For that matter, I don't know that I really ever pretended I was a princess or an animal or anything else she pretends to be…

I think I must have been born cynical.

How sad is that?

My imaginative play as a little girl:

-Communion—Come on, we were Catholic. And there was this weird allure to being the priest (in a bathrobe) and handing out the little round wafers. My cousins and I played communion all the time. We would even take loaves of white bread and use cookie cutters to make little circles out of them. And then sometimes, we'd carry baby dolls up with us so that the "priest" could pretend to bless them. We may or may not be going to hell for this.

-Cashier—Yes, I'll admit freely that I thought the bar code scanner thingies in the grocery store were the coolest things I have ever seen. I remember when they used to have to key the numbers in manually and then once the scanner/beeper things came about? OMG! Fascinated. And I always wanted a fake cash register so that we could play grocery store, but unfortunately, we had to make do with scanning the items and going "BEEP" with our mouths. *sigh* Such a deprived childhood. But now? SELF CHECK-OUT! I'm reliving my youth every time I go to Wal-Mart.

-Teacher—Because we had a huge chalkboard in our play room and I really enjoy being in charge and telling people what to do. And that's pretty much the only reason to play teacher. 

-Cops and Robbers—We played this for hours on end it seemed. And you know, being raised in the South, we all had toy guns. And we pointed them at people and pretended to shoot them or held them at gun point and took them to jail. And I'm happy to report that we are all pretty well-adjusted contributing members of society and not super violent serial killers or neo-Nazi skinheads intent on world domination. We just liked to play cops and robbers….

-House—I was blessed to have a kick-ass playhouse as a kid. It was HUGE and had a little bunk bed and kitchenette in it. And we played house in that thing forever. We'd cook and take care of babies and act like our mothers.  (Cool Sidebar: My little one is playing house in it now since my mom had it redone when I had a little girl.)
-Cowgirl—Hello?!!? We had horses. My parents both rodeoed. My sister and I rodeoed. This is not imaginative.

So I'm not sure that's very "imaginative" imaginative play? More like "totally boring and realistic" play. What a lame ass. 

The kid's got much more going for her in the imagination department.

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