Pretend Play

It's Saturday afternoon in able mabel land. The little are sleeping. The bigs are playing house.

First though:
9 yr old daughter and her friend: "Hey guys! Wanna play house?"
7 yr old son and his buddy: "Naw. Sounds boring." (play house? they're way too old for that!)

9 yr olds beg and plead, until finally...
7 yr old, "Okay. Fine. But I get to be the dad and leave to work right away in the morning." "No, I get to be the dad!"

After much debating back and forth, it's decided that one boy will be a dog and one boy will be the dad. The girls will be the mom and kid.

All is peaceful in the playroom, a serene happy "family" goes about their day.

The "real life" mom continues about her Saturday chores, playing Suzie Homemaker, thrilled that all is well above.

Meanwhile, a little wakes up and goes to join the "family".

All of a sudden the "pretend family" upstairs erupts into chaos!

The baby bawls nonstop.
The toddlers are owly, saying "no" and "don't want to" over and over again.
The dog howls constantly.
The mom is grumpy and cross. (I wonder where they learned that behavior from?! Must be from one of the friend's houses.)
The dad bolts for the fishing hole. (Ditto above. Hubby hasn't been fishing for a good long while.)

The "real life" mom sighs. This is too much like everyday life. Why the need to act it out all over again?! She climbs the stairs to calm the masses and suggests the "family" breaks up and a game of "school" starts up. Eyes light up and off they go.

Please let this be a good day in school and not one where:

The students won't listen.
The teacher loses control of the classroom.
The principal gets called in.
The buses stall on the side of the road.
A goose gets loose in the hallway.
The dog eats the homework.

Or this "real life" mom will have to think up a new game, a quiet one, for them to play. A game of "Church", perhaps? At least all chaos there gets taken care of in whispers and the naughty ones get hauled out to the back. (in theory anyway.)