I stopped playing with toys, i.e. action figures, toy spaceships, etc., sometime between ages 11-12, but it wasn't by choice. When I was 11, my parents became obsessed with the idea of me getting interested in swimming and their means to do this was to force me to swim whenever my sister did. If I was in my room creating an adventure with my space toys, action figures, etc., and my sister wanted to go swimming, I was forced to drop what I was doing an go into the pool(I couldn't swim yet) when my sister did. I really resented my imaginary adventures I created being constantly interrupted. Sometimes it would be a couple of times a day. If we'd get it out of the way in the morning, I would think I'd have the rest of the day to do my thing but sister would decide she wanted to swim again, so again I was back to the pool.
Another game she's pull was asking me if I wanted to swim and when I'd say "No," she'd respond with "Are you doing anything?" When I'd respond that I was doing something, i.e. playing with my Micronauts, Star Trek toys, etc., she'd go to our mother and say "He doesn't want to swim and he's not doing anything," which would get our mother to come up and threaten me if I didn't go swimming. Even when I'd tell my mother I was doing something and what I was doing, I'd get lame responses like "You can do that 7 days a week so go get your suit on right now and go swimming, you need to get suntanned." Of course, how could I enjoy my playing daily when I was constantly interrupted for swimming.
The fact that my sister could decide my activities weren't "doing anything" also bothered me as well. She would complain about the stupid things I liked to do, like playing, which didn't make sense to me because I'd do them in the privacy of my bedroom quietly and it would in no way disturb her. She like the power my parents gave her over me with swimming I think.
I just wish I could have minded my own business and done my thing in peace, but it wasn't to be anymore. I was a different person when I started school after that first summer of forced swimming. I cannot explain it, but I didn't ever feel "right" or confident again. Before forced swimming, I felt like I was someone, now I was nobody. I still feel the pain of it now, over 20 years later.
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PrisonerSix
"I am not a number, I am a free man!"