typecasting

Kids love to pretend and my three are no exception. They act out stories they've made up featuring their favorite characters or they use little action figures and dolls to act out their dramatics. I remade the upstairs bathroom into a dramatic play nirvana. I hung hooks on the wall for fancy dresses or pirate garb and hung a shoe organizer from a towel rod for all those ridiculous plastic high heels, hung a basket hanger from the ceiling for hats and have baskets and bins filled with swords, cutlasses, wands, glasses, costume jewelry and crowns. The kids disappear upstairs and enter the bathroom and when they emerge they are no longer my Sam, Teresa or Katie. They are Redbeard the Pirate, Cinderella, a Wildcats cheerleader, Harry Potter or the Fairy Godmother.

Then the real fun begins, creating and playing out their stories. When I'm not an integral part of the pretend play (Mum, you be the evil witch...Mumma, you can be the ugly old troll) I love to eavesdrop on them as they play together. There is so much conversation betweeen them and it always gets interesting when they mix things up. For instance, just the other day, Harry Potter and Sleeping Beauty were on a mission with a Pink Power Ranger to rescue a hapless kitty from doom. Unfortunately the hapless feline in question was really not very cooperative. He prefered attacking his rescuers which caused both shrieks of laughter and frustration. Today Teresa pulled out dresses, crowns, tiaras, costume jewelry and fancy vests and began directing her brother and sister into costumes and their parts. Sam was the Prince and Teresa took on the role of the lovely Princess. Katie piped up, "What am I going to be?" To which Teresa answered, "well...you can be the minion."

I feel your pain Katie. When I was little my sisters and I played beauty parlor. One would be the stylist and another would be the lucky customer. And me...I always had to be the receptionist.