Hi everyone,
I have recently starting babysitting for my cousins daughter during the weekdays. She is new to our family and we are all enjoying getting to know her. I do have a couple of questions about her playing behavior. Most of the time when a child does something I try to understand the why of it. She has me stumped. When she is at our house she walks around with a toy bucket, purse or basket and fills it with toys and then just walks around. She does this for almost all the time that she is here. I am not sure what to think about this. We have so many toys here to play with that you would think it was toys r us and yet all she does is carry things around. I have tried to encourage constructive play time with my daughter and her and yet she just walks around and puts things in her bucket. She is a very bright little girl, sadly was in foster care and her mother lets her watch t.v. constantly. Im not sure if her short past has somehow altered her pretend play or what this may be as i have never seen a child do this. How do i encourage the healty pretend play that most 3 years olds love?
I also have noticed that she is terrified of puppets, any toy that talks and moves and is even afraid of Santa. How do i get her to warm up to these fun things? Her mother told me today that she had told her daughter that she was going to be the scary man from the scream movies for halloween. I was shocked and asked her mom why she would scare her daughter like that. I adore this little girl yet i dont understand how to change these fears that i think her mother is putting into her mind. Is it my place to say something to this mother? I just hate to see a child afraid of the world when they should be feeling secure in their surroundings. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.