Help. I don't want to play with Barbie or Paw Patrol

LadyGaGa
She wants to be Grandma.
What a compliment!

‘Grandma will you play with me?’ At the moment it’s dollies, doctors, monsters, Sylvanians and police. Yes, I do sometimes get very bored and put on Peppa Pig and get some sweets for a break (horror of horrors!) But then I look at my older grandchildren who are starting to find their own way and no longer even want a game of UNO, and I’m back to dollies. It’s only a short window when their grandma seems like the best and most fun person in the world, so I’ll take it. When my daughter asked my little granddaughter what she wanted to be when she grew up, she replied ‘Grandma’ That won’t last long!

RosieandherMaw

Lathyrus3

I guess I was fortunate that my play duties pretty much aligned with my own inclinations- board games, construction, bash a car, and, well, just generally organising things into order and pattern😬🙄

I’ve only had to play “pretend” with great-nieces and assorted GC of friends, so I guess I didn’t have the grandmotherly devotion needed to alleviate the tedium😳

“Bash a car” ??
Sounds suspiciously like what I did in n MK station multi storey car park a couple of years ago when I was taking GS 1 to Sadlers Wells. He thought it hilarious and my car insurance premium has nearly doubled.
Desperate measures

Obviously your version would have been much more fun, but you have to draw the line somewhere 😬

Chipped skirting board was as far as I was prepared to go🤣

There was a columnist in one of the Sunday papers talking about being with children and admiting, a bit shame facedly that she gets ever so bored constantly playing Paw Patrol, so you are nt the only one with this problem Ivygeranium!

It’s obviously got to be different if you have your grandchildren every day, but my three local ones, I generally have just had on my day off, they’re quite spaced out, so apart from school holidays, I would only have one at a time
So that one day, I give completely to the child, we go out, we play, we rarely watch much television, it’s definitely trickier with three though!

Tbh I believe in balance, even for three year olds. Learning to enjoy play on their own helps them to use their imagination and develops creativity. There's 14 years between my two children so effectively I had only children. I'd help them get started on some activity and then expect them to spend some time playing whilst I got on with some job. Sometimes they'd help me or mirror what I was doing. However I didn't play with them on demand or if they had tantrums. Tbh tantrums were totally ignored until they stopped and they soon stopped.
My older daughter is part time mum to her partners child and is finding it really difficult because the child is used to being played with or sat in front of a device of some kind and entertained. DD doesn't believe in that way of parenting and neither do I but it's very difficult to change expectations on a part time basis. However when I've had GKs to stay its always been grannie's house, grannie's rules.

So true Sarah.

Sadgrandma, I suspect that anyone who says they have never used a snack as a bribe, is probably being untruthful

Happy Days TerriBull, they don’t last long do they?

Of course there are loads of board games for 3 and 4 year olds! ... 😍

IvyGeranium, I’ve been there and sorry to have to tell you that my eight year old GD still wants to be played with, usually schools where she is the bossy teacher
( gives an interesting insight into what goes on during her school days)! Poor DH always has to be the naughty boy or the one who needs extra help! When she comes for the day during the holidays she comes armed with several board games, sigh! However we treasure these times as I know that shortly it will be all about boy bands and make up and she’ll probably find us boring.
When she was younger and we had the tantrums if we said no, I’m afraid I would sometimes use bribery, ‘play by yourself for a little while and you can have a biscuit or something’. I’m sure I’ll get some negative comments about that! Or. When she did play nicely I would heap praise and say I’ll tell mummy what a grown up girl she’s been. Seemed to work.

I do like board games at times, but they can run on and usually such requests come in the middle of meal preparation, hence my delegating to whoever else is around.

Also sweet memories of toddler years and the toy tea service, umpteen cups delivered, sometimes in the doddery style of Mrs Overall, always met with head back, imaginary tea poured down the hatch, whilst exclaiming, delicious! Enthusiastic tea server snatches cup back to deliver umpteen more.

Labyrinth:
This is a great game - maybe look for the junior version. If you buy the older version it's an easy game to tweak.

Lathyrus3

I guess I was fortunate that my play duties pretty much aligned with my own inclinations- board games, construction, bash a car, and, well, just generally organising things into order and pattern😬🙄

I’ve only had to play “pretend” with great-nieces and assorted GC of friends, so I guess I didn’t have the grandmotherly devotion needed to alleviate the tedium😳

“Bash a car” ??
Sounds suspiciously like what I did in n MK station multi storey car park a couple of years ago when I was taking GS 1 to Sadlers Wells. He thought it hilarious and my car insurance premium has nearly doubled.
Desperate measures

Go with it and try to enjoy it. They are not little very long. I used to have my grandchildren before they started school and those days went so fast. We found some local national trust places that had dress up boxes that they loved.

Outfoxed!:
This is a co-opetative "catch the pie thief" game. Along the lines of Cluedo but easier.

Catan: Junior:
There is a new version of this that can be played with 2 or 4. You are trying to control pirate hideouts

Ticket to Ride: First Journey;
This is a junior version of Ticket to Ride. I confess I've only seen - not played it - but the adult version is played by one of our 10 year olds very happily. If I was looking for a younger child I'd definitely look at this. My other 10 year old grandson would find the adult version too tricky.
If you look at this the USA version is likely to be easier than the European one.

My First Carcassonne:
This is an easy version.of the great "Carcassonne" game which you may have played. It's a tile-game that you build by adding on to an earlier tile.

Board games aren’t really my thing, although I must have played hundreds of games of Frustration over the years, the older ones are into Cluedo, which I don’t mind, but I hate monopoly, and Trivial Pursuit.
We have spent many hilarious hours playing cheat.
I buy a lot of games which are played once and abandoned, so if anyone has any good suggestions for games for a very imaginative six year old, I would be happy to hear your recommendations

TerriBull I love playing board games with my grandchildren - and now the older ones are older we can play lots of l.o.n.g.e.r. games.
Risk, Ocean Trader etc.
This is a joy!

Did you all know that’s there’s quite a bit of money is some retro toys well worth looking some up

I did enjoy the dinosaur phase both with children and grandchildren.

I used to throw myself enthusiastically into Duplo constructing, making track configurations Brio train set, Sylvanian families. Grandson had Paw Patrol, Granddaughter had Barbies, lots of Gruffalo, Stick Man, Room on the Broom, I miss those days, even if it was a challenge down on the floor.

Now there are requests for interminable games of Monopoly, I generally slide out of those and let other members of the family step in, my excuse, meltdowns even though the last one was around 60 years ago, one can never be sure if such emotions are just lying dormant ready to erupt at any time, it didn't take much, could even be triggered if I didn't get the dog before the game even began. I'm definitely not in a safe space when confronted with a Monopoly board.

I guess I was fortunate that my play duties pretty much aligned with my own inclinations- board games, construction, bash a car, and, well, just generally organising things into order and pattern😬🙄

I’ve only had to play “pretend” with great-nieces and assorted GC of friends, so I guess I didn’t have the grandmotherly devotion needed to alleviate the tedium😳

I am on my final one of six grandchildren .
One day a week I throw myself enthusiastically into role play, Barbie, paw patrol, sylvanian families, Frozen, you name it, I’ve played it.
I admit my mind is prone to wander, and I don’t always get the right voice for the right character, I do sometimes also take a sneaky look at my phone.
But it makes her very happy, and it’s for such a short time, I feel sad when the older ones sit around on their tablets.
Not always easy I know, but just try and embrace these years.

Barbie and paw patrol puppies , might enjoy in the other activities too . So if she wants barbie and you want to bake suggest barbie wants to bake

BlueBelle

*I guess those who say make the most of it did enjoy pretend games themselves*
No Lathyrus I didn’t and never have enjoyed role play but
I d happily sacrifice my likes for what they were happy doing, cos I wanted them to have good memories of their times with Nan and I wanted to send them home happy at the end of the day, it was as simple as that

Yes, I did exactly the same with my GS. To be perfectly honest, I find playing with children, especially young children, extremely trying and boring - but I put those feelings to one side and entered into the whole Paw Patrol/dinosaur/Lego play (whatever he was into at the time) with enthusiasm, because I wanted him to feel that I was interested and invested in him.
Now he's 8 and into video games and football - but only yesterday he was educating me (!) all about K Pop Demon Hunters!