Identity Crisis

Clarissa loves to play. And she loves to play pretend games.

The only problem is, I tend to be everything.

She'll play the child or the princess or whatever. I'll be the older sister, the annoying younger sister, the mother, the teacher, the evil witch, the fat lazy person, the boy, the friends, the knight, the dragon, the ghost...

We'll play Barbies and she'll be 'Clari'. I'll be 'me' and Ken, and 'Anna' and 'Tina' and 'Giulia'. She'll dress one, and I'll dress five. Then she acts for one, and I act for two, the others stand motionless. She looks at the line of Barbies stood against the box.

"Why they not move?"
"Because I've only got two hands Clari."

Now I don't mind acting as the rest of the world while Clari is Clari, it only becomes an identity crisis when she expects me to know when to transition from mother-to-sister-to-teacher during her casual dialogue. In her mind she knows when she's talking to the teacher, and then to the mother, only I'm not blessed with the art of mind-reading, so it can be pretty well impossible to keep up. And then she gets frustrated, and she cries and of course, it's always my fault.