Working Girl

I’ve noticed lately that when Charlotte plays by herself she takes one of two routes.  The first is her usual PJ Masks plot, in which she takes her headquarters and various PJ Masks figures and has them act out episodes of the TV show.  She’ll do this by herself or she’ll ask me to come in and make the characters talk so that she can properly reenact a scene.

The other avenue she takes is to have a mommy and a baby play together, and she always has the mommy go to work.  She will hold them up and say “I go to work now! I see you soon! Kiss and hug!”  Then she makes the baby wait until the mommy gets home and when the mommy comes back she says “hug! kiss! mommy’s home!”  At first I was feeling a little bummed about this role play, but now I think it’s actually doing great things for her.  For one, she recognizes that mommy goes to work and she always comes back.  She associates both the leaving and the coming home with hugs and kisses.  So she’s watching our real life and just inserting that into her play life.  I think it’s awesome and is just reinforcing the idea that mommy can leave and work and come home and everything is okay.

There are days when Charlotte throws an absolute fit when I have to leave in the morning.  Just last Friday she was clinging to me as if she were holding onto a tree branch for dear life and shouting “mommy stop working!”  But on those days I try not to say I have to go to work in a negative way because I don’t want her to think me working is negative.  I want her to know that I go to work for many reasons and although I miss her, it’s a good thing.  And the fact that she plays by having mommy go to work is a good thing too.

Besides, I have to work to afford all of the upcoming sales at Toys R Us.  Seriously, I’m going to buy everything for Christmas before the beloved toy mecca closes its doors for good.