I’m the world’s worst playmate for a 4 year old. I just do not really care, and because of my own autism, I can hardly stand dealing with something I do not care about.
So I have introduced the 5 minute rule. That means I set the timetimer countdown to 5 minutes for myself (sound off) so I can see progress while playing cars or train or something else.
Once the 5 minutes have passed, I may pull myself out of the play again. Most times she just continues playing on her own. We both have a tendency for parallel play anyway.
Other times, I’ve become very busy building a fun lego-duplex train or building a ferris wheel out of magnets with perfectly matching colors. And then playing is no longer what I’m supposed to do for her and we’re really enjoying ourselves ❤
