Playing Make-believe

My 4-year-old daughter loves to play pretend with me. For several months, we've played Cinderella. She is not Cinderella. I'm not either. We're the step-sisters.

Today she changed the game. Bye-bye, glass slipper;  hello, Redcoats. This afternoon we stepped right into our nation's past as she became Sarah from the cartoon series about the American Revolution, Liberty's Kids. I morphed into Sarah's mother.

The entire play was acted out while I was washing dishes and then feeding the baby. And this is the dialogue:

Daughter: I'm Sarah, and you be my mother. And my father just died in the war. And we're so sad, and my hero is the one with my brother who is a soldier, but he got captured by the British and has a gag in his mouth.

Me: Okay.

Daughter (in an urgent, breathless voice): Mother, what shall we do? The British are coming up the driveway!

Me (matching her urgent, breathless voice): I don't know.  I guess I'll need to keep washing the dishes so they don't see dirty dishes.

Daughter (urgent, breathless voice continues for the duration): How shall I help you?

Me (still the urgent, breathless voice, but also choking back laughter at aforementioned voice): Perhaps you could unload the silverware from the dishwasher, my daughter.

Daughter: Yes, that would be delightful.

Me: Yes, indeed.

Daughter works alongside Me, putting dishes away.  
Then, in the background, a baby cries. For real.

Me: Oh, no, your baby brother is crying!  Shall we go to him, daughter?

Daughter: Yes, we shall. You must nurse him before the British get here.

Me: Okay.

Daughter (handing me a nursing pillow): Here, my mother, you will need this.

Me: Thank you so very much.

Daughter:  The British are almost here. What shall I do?

Me:  Well, if they will be coming in, don't you think you should go pick up your room?

Daughter (giving me a strange look, a look which says that she's figured out my game but still in her breathy, urgent Revolutionary War era voice which indicates playing pretend): I do not think I should. What about the children?

Me: (NOT in breathy voice, but in a genuinely confused one) Huh?

Daughter: The British are coming. What about the children?

Me: If you pick up the toys in your room, then they will not know we have children.

Daughter: Um. No. That is not a good idea, my mother.
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At this point, she completely figured out my game, and Daddy came home or the brothers interrupted or something.

If you have a child that likes to play such things, it is so easy to tune out the constant chatter when you are busy with other thoughts. But play along a time or two, just for the fun of it. Plus you might get a few chores done before your little smarty figures out your ulterior motives. And if playing make-believe is really just not your thing, at least listen to your child play make-believe with siblings or friends. The drama cannot be matched on the big screen.