Clara: “We’re very poor and everyone in our town is rich and they all laughed at Lily when she fell in the river and it was so cold that she got really sick.
Lily: “They stole our bathtub and now we have to take a bath in the sea and one day a shark came up and bit me. They ate our baby chicken and all our eggs and they took the rest of our house, and all our winter clothes so we get so cold in the winter time.”
Clara: “But God gave us food. One time we didn’t have any ketchup or french fries but God gave us some! But the rich people came and took it all so God had to give us more.”
Lily: “Oh and you know what else they took? They took my glasses.”
this is priceless! It made me laugh out loud! 🙂
hahahaha. I remember being a little girl and saying “let’s play poor people!” It’s great fun. In a few years they can read maudlin Victorian novels.
My two year old Mary yesterday in the car announced gleefully “I’m going to cook you and eat you up, Claire!” She has a villainous laugh, too, a cackel. She went on to describe how she was going to prepare her sister (First I’ll pour water over you). Her big sister (7) saw the humor and played along. I’m just glad there weren’t neighbor kids around…I think it stems from the way adults talk about eating up baby Paul’s cheeks (“so cute I could eat you up”)
A few years ago I got on video my three oldest with their Thomas tank engine trains (around 40) all in a circle around the Charlie engine, chanting “chop up charlie.” and “let’s eat him!”
I think I prefer your kids’ poor people to my kids’ cannibalism 🙁
My sister’s and I used to play poor mama and babies. We were all starving. The babies would gather around mama who was holding a piece of bread. Mama would break off little crumbs and hand them to each baby. The babies would look at mama bewildered and say “but mama, who is that big piece for?” To which mama would reply with a smile, “oh, well, this is for me”. Hahaha. I don’t know about you, but now that I’m a mama, I am finding truth in this. I am awfully protective of my food!
My cousins and I loved to play “orphanage.” We were all the poor mistreated orphans trying to run away. Great fun! I think there’s more to explore here on why children gravitate toward this type of play.
Oh and Katy, my kids eat people too, they also like to chop them up.