History Main / PlayingHouse

* In ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'', Nobita tried to use one of Doraemon's gadgets to get out of playing house with his younger cousin (as his friends were teasing him about how girly that was), but of course HilarityEnsues.

* ''Manga/TheQuintessentialQuintuplets'': In Chsapter 38, Ichika takes her manager's daughter to her house to babysit her, and the kid forces her along with Miku and Fuutarou to play house. Funnily enough, rather than making Ichika or Miku act the mom part, she has them be her dad's (whose part is acted by Fuutarou) secretaries. [[spoiler:It's later revealed this is because her real-life dad divorced from her mother after she cheated on him]].

[[folder:Literature]]
* In Judy Blume's ''Iggie's House'', Winnie Barringer and the three Garber children play house in a house that's being constructed in the neighborhood while they're on their way to a picnic near the end of the story.

* Emma and Otacon from ''Franchise/MetalGear'' used to play house. They are step-siblings.

* In the original text of ''Literature/PeterPan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up'', Wendy, John and Michael play house in the nursery at the beginning of the play. Of course, the entire play ends up being a prolonged game of house with Wendy being the mother and all the Lost Boys and Peter being her children.

* Shizuru and Tomoe did this a few times near the end of ''Anime/MaiOtome''. [[FetishFuel When two grown women play house, it's not quite as innocent as usual.]] [[DieForOurShip Shizuru X Natsuki shippers were not amused.]]

Sometimes InnocentCohabitation will jokingly be called "playing house" as the cohabitors fall into the roles of a married couple without the full benefits of same. It can also be used as a mocking euphemism for non-innocent cohabitation- the implication being that the relationship needs a legal marriage before it counts as real. (It's a more upscale version of the term: "shacking up")

* ''Webcomic/BadMachinery'': Mildred and Lottie pretend that their Wendy House (playhourse) has maintenance issues their friend Jack needs to fix. Mildred's mum lampshades that they're a bit old for this game. (They're covering up that they've converted the building into a skate ramp and are charging the neighborhood kids to use it.)

** "I Don't Wanna Play House," a 1967 No. 1 country hit for TammyWynette. Here, Wynette takes the role of a young girl who tries to rebuff a little boy who wants to merely play a friendly game of "house." Her reasoning: "It makes my Mommy cry ... 'cause when she played house, my Daddy said, 'Goodbye'!" (That is, she saw her parents fighting and not getting along, and eventually he leaves his family behind.)

* Shizuru and Tomoe did this a few times near the end of ''MaiOtome''. [[FetishFuel When two grown women play house, it's not quite as innocent as usual.]] [[DieForOurShip Shizuru X Natsuki shippers were not amused.]]

Not to be confused with [[Series/{{House}} what Hugh Laurie does for a living]], which in turn should not be confused with [[PlayingDoctor playing "doctor"]]; nor with HouseRules.

[[folder: Anime And Manga ]]
* In ''Manga/CrayonShinChan'', Ai declares to Penny that she's pregnant because she and Shin kissed while playing house.
** The GagDub had a suggestion of playing House, with the first response being "I get to be the handsome doctor." Yes, it was ''[[Series/{{House}} that]]'' Series/{{House}}

[[folder: Literature]]
* In Judy Blume's ''Iggie's House'', Winnie Barringer and the three Garber children play house in a house that's being constructed in the neighborhood while they're on their way to a picnic near the end of the story.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* ''MadMen'' uses this subtly to portray StepfordSuburbia; at Sally's birthday party, when the kids are playing in her new playhouse, they can be heard saying things to each other like, "I ''like'' [[ExiledToTheCouch sleeping on the couch]]." Helen Bishop, [[EldritchAbomination the one divorced mother in the neighborhood]], comes outside fresh from being hit on by a male adult guest and sniped at by several female ones, and says to Don, "Interesting crowd in there." Don replies, "Same crowd out here."

[[folder: Magazine ]]

* ''PrivateEye'' ran a cartoon in which we see a girl sitting on a blanket surrounded by dolls and a boy in the background escaping over a fence; the caption is "Playing Modern Mummies and Daddies" or somesuch.

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

* In addition to the page quote above, Calvin and Susie of ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' play house a few times, once with Calvin refusing to accept Mr. Bun as their child, and another ending with him deciding to be a [[NatureHero jungle man]] and running off in his underwear. For these sequences, the strip had an ArtShift to a ''MaryWorth'' style soap opera comic.
* Margaret always wants to do this with Dennis in ''[[ComicStrip/DennisTheMenaceUS Dennis the Menace]]''.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* Emma and Otacon from ''Franchise/MetalGear'' used to play house. They are step-siblings.
* [[TokenMiniMoe Nowi]] from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' likes to play house with her comrades, among other games. [[ImmortalImmaturity She's actually a dragon that's centuries old]].

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' did it a lot.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' did a version of this with Stewie and Oliva but Stewie ends up getting angry over the lack of sex... whatever that is. [[PingPongNaivete Some sort of cake]]?
* Creator/RalphBakshi's 1967 short ''The Mini-Squirts'' took this to its logical conclusion by turning the situation into a soap opera.

[[/folder]]
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* There's a variation in ''Anime/JungleWaItsumoHaleNochiGuu'' where Marie gets everyone in Hale's family to play house with her, but ''she's'' the child and it ends up being a ploy to be able to get parental affection.

* In an episode of ''UruseiYatsura'', Lum goes ten years into the past and finds Shinobu playing house with Ataru. Young Ataru has a little difficulty with the concept of "pretend."

* In an OVA of ''Manga/MikakuninDeShinkoukei'', Kobeni remembers how she, Benio, and Nadeshiko played house as young children. Benio quickly put a stop to the game when Nadeshiko's setup outright states that Benio in the father role is unemployed after having been fired for sexual harassment.

'''Susie:''' Okay... first, you come home from work. Then I came home from work. We'll gripe about our jobs, and then we'll argue over whose turn it is to microwave dinner.