Playing Games, All Sorts.

My friend Leah is coming to visit me this week...I can't wait. I called her the other day to finalize plans and she relayed to me that she had 4 little girls running around her house at that time. Her two daughters, Isabella who is nearly 5, Addison 2 years old and their two cousins who are also around 5. I was bit surprised b/c it sounded like all 4 were happily playing together and I thought it to be very kind that the older girls would allow the little girl to play in their game. Leah confirmed what I suspected, which was that although Addy was allowed to play she was forced to be the monster or the bad guy in every game that they played.
I remember this sad game all to well....I am the little sister also. Although I can't remember ever having to be the monster specifically, I do remember having to be the less then glamorous characters in our games. For example, if we were playing Star Wars my older sister, Amy, always got to be Princess Leah and I was always Chewbacca, the wookie...you would have thought that George Lucas could have thrown in at least one more girl character. Anywho... if we played The Dukes of Hazzards, Amy was Daisy and I always had to be Bo or Luke. On really degrading days for me, when any of our little boy friends were over to play the roles of Bo or Luke, they would try to make me be Uncle Jesse. Little did they know that in my imaginative little mind I was actually being Flash, Rosco P Coltrain's basset hound. Finally, when we played Scooby Doo, Amy was obviously Daphne and reluctant to be Velma, I always chose to be Scooby or Shaggy. On really great days I was able to be Scrappy.
This is how it is being the second child....less pictures of you throughout the family albums and never getting to be who really wanted during imaginative games. It explains a lot I think. :)