Obsessed With Pretend Play

[FoxLovinPat]

In my day all the kids on the block walked around with attache cases full of some interesting toys. Some serious pretending going on.

Bond. James Bond.

Yeah we didn't have anything like that, closest we had was water guns, as we didn't have Nerf yet.. that didn't really become a thing until my little brother was around, which yes I played Nerf with him of course.

But we'd just use vaguely gun shaped sticks, or just our fingers to play pretend with guns.. if we didn't have actual toy guns on hand.

I actually ended up having my privileged to play shooter games revoked for a few years, until I was deemed "mature enough" because I got in trouble at school for going around making finger guns and going "bang bang!".
Which was Frankly silly of my father because I don't think it was solely the shooter games that made me do that.. I mean there's also movies and TV and other kids too.

They actually made cases of toys like that?! Wow!

Yeah you definitely wouldn't see that anymore.. too realistic, you'd probably get the cops called on you.

Yep. I get a kick out of thinking about my childhood relative to all the gimmicks toy manufacturers came out with. Where we all had to have them! And most of them didn't last that long in popularity. Then onto to the next toy to pester Mom for...lol.

Nothing funnier though than to see the class president in grade school in a suit and tie, only to lose his spy pistol that popped out onto the floor in class. Priceless.

That never really changes really, the toy industry is still going strong, with toys coming and going in popularity as the manufacturers compete and develop the newest hottest toy they everyone must have.
But some toys stand the test of time and don't really go away or change much.

 

[Judge]

Yeah we didn't have anything like that, closest we had was water guns, as we didn't have Nerf yet.. that didn't really become a thing until my little brother was around, which yes I played Nerf with him of course.

But we'd just use vaguely gun shaped sticks, or just our fingers to play pretend with guns.. if we didn't have actual toy guns on hand.

I actually ended up having my privileged to play shooter games revoked for a few years, until I was deemed "mature enough" because I got in trouble at school for going around making finger guns and going "bang bang!".
Which was Frankly silly of my father because I don't think it was solely the shooter games that made me do that.. I mean there's also movies and TV and other kids too.

Yeah you definitely wouldn't see that anymore.. too realistic, you'd probably get the cops called on you.

That never really changes really, the toy industry is still going strong, with toys coming and going in popularity as the manufacturers compete and develop the newest hottest toy they everyone must have.
But some toys stand the test of time and don't really go away or change much.

That's another thing we had and loved them. But they were potentially dangerous- "Zebra" guns. Plastic guns that shot spring-loaded rubber pellets.

There's so much of my childhood in terms of toys would be considered prohibitive today. Not to mention having a number of toy guns that from a distance looked and sometimes worked like the real thing.

 

[Wolfiedog]

And yet are we not still pretend playing?
Isn’t that what masking all about?

 

[Judge]

And yet are we not still pretend playing?
Isn’t that what masking all about?

I never thought of masking as a form of leisure. More a matter of torture coming home from a social engagement usually associated with work. Where I would often come home with a horrible tension headache.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

That's another thing we had and loved them. But they were potentially dangerous- "Zebra" guns. Plastic guns that shot spring-loaded rubber pellets.

There's so much of my childhood in terms of toys would be considered prohibitive today. Not to mention having a number of toy guns that from a distance looked and sometimes worked like the real thing.

That sounds rather interesting, but ya also sounds like something that wouldn't be allowed to be sold to kids nowadays.

I've seen the latest innovation in toy guns, since I work retail, that being Gel Blasters.
They shoot little gel balls out, and actually can fire in full auto since they're just firing harmless gel balls.
They essentially repurposed those old Orbies toys, which were a fad at one point, to be ammo for this new iteration of kid's firearms.
I believe the gel balls are biodegradable, so that gives them an advantage over Nerf because you don't necessarily need to clean up after your battle like you did with Nerf since you'd have to find and pick up all the foam darts or else you'd end up littering.
However I guess Nerf has an advantage still over these new Gel Blasters that you can play with it indoors, whereas I don't think you'd wanna play with a Gel Blaster indoors because then you'd have little gel balls all over your house and you would have to clean them all up then. I guess another advantage Nerf has is that you can resuse the darts for as long as they still hold up, but then I guess once they start falling apart you have to throw them out which adds to our garbage piles so if Gel Blaster's ammo is indeed biodegradable then it's more environmentally friendly than Nerf.

Sorry I guess that's a tad off topic, but where else can I mention this?

 

[Aspychata]

Cool post

 

[TikvaBall]

I didn't do the traditional pretend play, but I played with cups as stim toys, and I would make up stories where they would be the characters. I've never told a soul about this, but when I stim while watching TV, I still have the cups represent the characters.

 

[MNAus]

but the depth and frequency is much more pronounced in the NT kid vs ASD2 kid, as well as amount of cooperativeness.

I think this is the autistic trait that's observed. I'm not sure it's imaginative play that is absent, but that role-play of relationships. So pretending pretending you're a teacher to your toys is not overly uncommon, but pretending you're a chef, pretend-feeding a parent then responding to their cues is less prevalent IIRC. Also, observing my kids, what they often do is set scenes, act the scene, then set a new scene. It's all very directed, rather than fluid. So when they play it will be "and now we're going to pretend this and that. And now this is going to happen. And now you're angry because something else happened." etc.

 

[FayetheAspie]

I think this is the autistic trait that's observed. I'm not sure it's imaginative play that is absent, but that role-play of relationships. So pretending pretending you're a teacher to your toys is not overly uncommon, but pretending you're a chef, pretend-feeding a parent then responding to their cues is less prevalent IIRC. Also, observing my kids, what they often do is set scenes, act the scene, then set a new scene. It's all very directed, rather than fluid. So when they play it will be "and now we're going to pretend this and that. And now this is going to happen. And now you're angry because something else happened." etc.

I did like to plan out scenes much like a film producer giving everyone their scripts before play out an imaginary game.

 

[FoxLovinPat]

I think this is the autistic trait that's observed. I'm not sure it's imaginative play that is absent, but that role-play of relationships. So pretending pretending you're a teacher to your toys is not overly uncommon, but pretending you're a chef, pretend-feeding a parent then responding to their cues is less prevalent IIRC. Also, observing my kids, what they often do is set scenes, act the scene, then set a new scene. It's all very directed, rather than fluid. So when they play it will be "and now we're going to pretend this and that. And now this is going to happen. And now you're angry because something else happened." etc.

I guess I'm in the less-prevelent category then, because I'm pretty sure that when I lived with my aunt for a year, that I did play chef and would "make stuff" for her or my younger cousin with the play food and play kitchen stuff. Then again my memory of that time is fuzzy so maybe I did it in a less NT way.
Also might've played house when I was younger and living with my current parents, but that's also fuzzy so I'm not entirely sure.. I think I did.
Ugh, not really having much memory of my childhood sucks, I don't why that is either but I suppose it could be trauma related and that is my running theory on it.

I dunno what this would count as.. "scene acting" or pretend play but I'm told that when I still lived with my aunt, not too long before I was adopted by my current parents they visited her and saw me playing with a firetruck and saying in a child's impression of a deep voice "Don't worry baby, I'll save you baby!".. however I can't tell much more than that as I don't actually remember that, sadly. I was most likely referring to rescuing babies from burning building, not "babes".