Admission Number One

Every one has talents and weaknesses, even nannies. Sure, I'd like to sit here and tell you I'm Mary Frickin' Poppins, but I'd be lying. You don't want your nanny lying to you , do you? (An Au Pair in the neighborhood is getting fired for violating her contract by smoking outside while the kids were napping and then lying to the Mom about it.)

One of my weaknesses is that I'm not very good at one-on-one imaginative play. Rose is so far in to this princess phase that she can't see straight sometimes. She has a castle and sometimes commandeers her brother's castle for Extreme Princess Play. Several times a day, she will hand me a princess and ask me to pretend to be them or someone else in that particular movie.

Thankfully, she has low expectations, I really only have to stick to the movie script. Very rarely do I have to go off on a wild tangent and actually make up a story or scenario. We'd all be in big trouble because staying on script is hard enough, for me. I never had any Barbies growing up. In fact, I cried when I received one at a school gift swap in 3rd grade (or so). I had three brothers and we played outside ALL DAY LONG. Any pretending I did was that one of them was a girl.

Now that I care for a girl, ten hours a day, I'm a little out of my element. Not only do I associate with boys better, I have this limitation of not having the capacity to really play along like she wants. Oh, I do it. It's my job, she enjoys it and again, the low expectations. But it never lasts as long as she wants and my mind is screaming, inside, "THIS IS BORING!!!".

But, I am great at craft/art projects, we are outside as much as we possibly can, and I shower them with music. Rose's Dad is amazing at imaginative play so she really isn't being denied the opportunity for that important developmental process. We all have our gifts to give the children in our lives and I am grateful that though I have those weaknesses, I get to see Rose and Phillip blossom in the talents I have to share.