This is more a vent that anything else! When my daughter was little (well, she's still little at 4.5, but 'littler') my husband and I would speak in hushed tones about the day she might actually require even just a little less input from us. It'll happen over time we thought, as she gets bigger she'll become more self contained, she'll come to enjoy her wonderful imagination and see the limitations of ours - surely she will, we thought.
She hasn't... Instead she has become more and more intense and her play needs more complex. Sometimes, like today, it seems like she NEVER stops talking (she's still talking right now, without me in the room!). Similarly, her imagination never shuts down. My husband, dd and I have been living in an endless role play for the past 2 years - non stop. The characters have changed along the way (depending on which books series we're reading usually), but we are all assigned a character and dd insists we all refer to each other as the character's name. Mostly this is bearable, even fun, but goodness it takes a lot of energy! Each new character involves her explaining how the world works again and finding out about us as our characters - "do you know what stairs are for?", "have you ever seen a shop?" (you must reply no so she can explain whatever it is to you), "do you have a television at your house?", "does your mum read to you?", "why/why not?". Our every day activities take on the themes of the stories (invariably fairies at the moment - so a trip to the shops becomes an quest of some type or other for example)
I am probably heading toward the pointy end of the introversion scale and I'm someone who has a limited capacity for imagination before I become crazy bored. I love her to death and I am in absolute awe of her capacity for creative thought, but I could really do with an off switch from time to time!
(I should say that as long as she can see I am busy she can entertain herself very well - so I haven't really got much to complain about - it would just be great from time to time to do something mindless, even for 5 minutes!)
That was all - not really much point to it other than to vent to others who understand! Thanks for listening
