When the girls were littler we would play this game called Adventure Girls, except with their little girl voices and mispronouncing of letters Girls came out sounding like ‘gales’ so it then became Adventure Gaaaaaaales! (yes, always yelled like that!)
It wasn’t really a game so much as it was just make-believe time. We would put on costumes from their dress up box, sometimes they would find something in my own closet for me to wear (which was appreciated because as you can imagine I didn’t fit into anything but their crowns very well!).
We would run around the house finding fairies, fighting dinosaurs, hiding in our cottages from the witch that was chasing us, using our magic to make anything happen. Sometimes it was a pain being bossed around in their pretend land, but they were so ‘in it’ that it was hard not to just participate in awe of their imagination.
Well, the other day they said they wanted to just get in the car and drive somewhere. Where we live, driving ‘somewhere’ that isn’t our own town is a challenge since we are so far from everything. But we found a new park to go to, did some exploring, took in the sites, fresh air, and had a picnic.
At one point, we got in the car and I yelled Adventure Gaaaales! They giggled and then joined in. There wasn’t magic, or costumes, or fairies, but we were having a real-life Adventure Gales moment, just hopping in the car and finding a new, cool place to explore.
The glimpses of little kid make-believe haven’t totally left our house and I will let them stay as long as the girls can think them. Seeing our make-believe moments take some sort of shape into real-life is pretty darn cool. This is a part of growing up that is exciting to embrace and I can’t wait to see how they can bring the rest of their imagination to life!
I have to say as their mom I still have my make-believe moments, too. I don’t think there is an age-limit on make believe, it’s just easier to call it something boring like goal setting as we get older!
I hope you still allow yourself a moment to make-believe-maybe that the world isn’t as crazy as it is right now, or that you are on an island somewhere, or about accomplishing something you’ve always wanted to do.
I’m not sure if I’m teaching the girls something or if they just taught me something. But experiencing this make-believe moment come to life and the joy it brought all of us was kind of magical. Kid make-believe moments are no different than goal setting in adulthood. And guess what, the joy of experiencing it come to life is just as exciting!
In a crazy, crazy world let those kiddos keep playing make-believe and you keep leading the way with your own version of it—there’s no telling where or when these moments will become reality! Why take a chance of keeping them locked up in pretend land?!
And when they come to life I will totally let you borrow our saying of “Adventure Gaaaales!!!”