Post #3169761

2026-01-24 08:10 UTC

@foolishowl@social.coop no, you're not supposed to play that way anymore at that age! Seriously though: could it be that we just discover the joys of specifically social roleplay much later than NTs? I remember cringing at playing Father-mother-child (I found it mind -numbingly boring, but also remember feeling a strong aversion bordering on fear about pretending to be someone else). I didn't like role-playing games in my twenties (loved the rule structures but never knew what to say). I'm in my forties now, and have rediscovered role playing and enjoy being a creative game master for my son and his friends. @KatyElphinstone@mas.to

Replies (3)

@lizzard@social.tchncs.de 2026-01-24 08:11

@foolishowl@social.coop @KatyElphinstone@mas.to On the surface, it would sound logical: I was still working hard on building my own mask in order to survive up until my 20ies, while now I've de-masked a bit but have also become quite proficient at masking/code-switching, so it's become easier to try on other masks.

Open ##3169762
@olena@mementomori.social 2026-01-24 08:50

@lizzard@social.tchncs.de @foolishowl@social.coop @KatyElphinstone@mas.to I never got to understand what’s the point playing those games about pretending to be a family(in my childhood, it was named daughters-mothers) with someone: I have my normal life to be told what I have to do and participate in daily life. With the toys, I’ve never been interested in repeating daily life something or playing marriage/courtship whatever. My doll was mounting a deer to arrive on the quest to save an elephant from a witched castle, or to return a stolen treasure to the kingdom and so on. With other kids, playing toys, I just immersed in creating the scene: inventing houses and furniture from boxes, blocks and whatever we had, crafting capes from napkins, etc. In kindergarten, we were supposed to sleep after the lunch, but after being punished several times for staying awake(not wandering around even - just laying with my eyes open), I just started to close my eyes and start creating a story, an adventure in my head. It would feature some things I heard(or later read - as I learned to read at five, and was reading well till the end of kindergarten, and was just devouring books) in fairy tales and adventure stories, but I would try to create my own adventure, with the final that I want. I wouldn’t call that lack of imagination. But yeah, when I got asked to play daughters-mothers, I would be lost: what am I supposed to do, as my imagination refuses to work around those boring things

Open ##3169764
@KatyElphinstone@mas.to 2026-01-24 09:10

@lizzard@social.tchncs.de Oh my, I think you might have hit the nail on the head! I've got a hunch that autistic children might not be concentrating as much on *other humans* as neurotypicals... Maybe it's more about patterns or systems? Nature. Lights. Allsorts 🦋 Which means it might really just take a bit longer. But hey, it's not like we're not learning about other things 🤷‍♀️😊 @foolishowl@social.coop

Open ##3169767