It's Cindy's world, I just live in it

There are many reasons for your child to have friends to play with. 1. It helps them learn social skills 2. They learn to share their toys 3. It gives them something to do and 4. (and most importantly) It makes it so YOU do not have to play make believe with them all day long. I realize as of late (and Cindy can totally back me up on this one) I suck at “playing” dolls, ponies, mermaids, whatever. I suck. Whatever I make my doll say is inevitably always wrong. I know this because Cindy will furrow her brow, say “No” and then proceed to tell me what to make my doll say. I have also learned a few other “rules” about playing dolls along the way. First- there is always someone or something in trouble. There is never any time where the dolls are just hanging out watching TV or surfing the web. No, they are always in imminent danger from an evil queen, witch, purple pie man, “bad fairy” or something like this. Which leads to Cindy’s second rule which is there is always poison involved. Someone is always poisoned and sick and maybe dying. (thank you Barbie Mariposa and the 12 Dancing Princesses). Thus, a rescue is initiated to find the “antidote”- Cindy loves this word. Now, you would think that since I seemingly understand all these rules that conforming to them would be so easy. Here is where you are wrong. There are certain X factors that play in, that make it next to impossible to guess the correct behavior. X factors like where the evil queen is hiding exactly, where the antidote is and how you get it, the pace at which the poisoned doll is dying and how many, and more importantly, which dolls are involved in the rescue. It’s very important that only certain dolls are involved sometimes. Like Gabriella from HSM- Not a good swimmer. She’s never an asset on the underwater rescue. She has no wings or a tail- pretty useless- but very good at staying with he poisoned doll for comfort. That is usually her roll. But she can also drive the imaginary car when they all go to the pool together. Elena the fairy has become a lot less popular choice for heroism lately on account of her wings constantly falling off. It can be a liability in life and death situations. Similar to Sleeping Beauty and the crown that keeps getting caught on everything. Yes, it is a very complex world that these imaginary dolls live in. So pretty much you have to realize that your role as mom is not to play dolls and have ideas, your role is to be warm body that can hold a doll and take direction. Oh, and one more thing- NEVER play dolls with the doll’s arms up in the air. Totally unacceptable. You will be reprimanded.