Does anyone else play detailed imaginary games with their children that go on for years?

[WindsurfingDreams]

Not sure how unusual we are but it's one of my favourite bits of parenting!

Ds started it and we had this whole imaginary world with his toy planes and cars and they all had different characters and they would have all sorts of adventures or go to "school" etc.

And then with DD we have ended up doing very similar but with Lego friends.

Its just my favourite part of every day. But it's also been a nice kind of play therapy at times if they are dealing with difficult situations.

Just suddenly struck me that I have no idea how we began doing it, it certainly wasn't something I did with my parents (although they were great at reading me stories)

(DS stopped at about 12 and we play board games /do quizzes etc instead now)

We do! Youngest child is 16 and the imaginary world is as strong as ever

Very much so! There was a particular game involving imaginary woodland creatures which just became family folklore, and continues now even with eldest at uni 😁

Oh wow this is so so lovely 😍

Yes. DD is a young adult now but some of the characters that we co-created during the early years still make an occasional appearance.

Aw I think this is lovely! My child is only 4 so of course we live most of our time in imaginary worlds - I thought that phase would pass all too quickly though, so I love the thought of it continuing until they're much older 😍

Oh amazing ❤️

Oh amazing! dS stopped now but I hope I can keep it going with DD

Oh I love it!

We do, all the DCs cuddlies have their own characters and back stories, with ongoing story lines, it's like a long running soap opera :) There are also a few imaginary creatures including a pixie and army of faeries that make regular appearance :)

Ahh using cuddlies is lovely ❤️. And yes, exactly that, like an ongoing soap opera!

We don't now but ours started in toddler years and lasted until.secondary school years. Obviously I still engage with our imaginary friends and their animals and make sure they are doing OK (they are doing brilliantly).

They joi ed us on mamy walks. At home we created loads of duplo and lego zoos/farms for these friends.

My sons polar bear teddy called Barno. He is a greedy little bear who is obsessed with how to obtain more bear pies, going to bear school to be taught by Mrs Bearington, and a surprising side career as a judge on Strictly Bear Dancing. It's been going on for 8 years now with different bits of plot. We have side characters such as his sweet bullied sister Chilly, and an amazing international jewel thief and spy Meercat who is adept at childcare and spying on world leaders. His blackcard account funds Barnos endless need to order more Bear pies on Bear-azon. Meercat has dodgy friends all over the world but always makes time to care for the.bears and other toys. Sometimes Meetcat has to hide in new places around the globe to hide from the Furry Bear Investigators (FBI).

Oh I am so pleased to hear other stories 😄

Bet you didn't know there was a creature called a ferou which is a fox/horse?
In our family it has existed for over decade to the point I'm convinced the flipping thing is real!

Never ever happened to me growing up, and I have never done anything like this with my children.

Wish I had though. 😃 Might start now! (Even though I am mid 50s and they are grown adults who left home some years ago!) 😆

Yes, some of the toys had back stories but then one child and I developed our own alter egos. Spent most of the time from about 7 to 13 speaking in different accents. I've even got a video of us making a film for our tv series in our other characters 😄. I did similar with my own dad. Any pets or creatures in the garden got woven into an ongoing narrative and given names. He updated me on their stories when he wrote letters to me after I'd left home.

We do, but they don’t know it 🤣 when my eldest lost her first tooth, she got a letter from ‘her’ tooth fairy, Harriet. This has started a long-running correspondence continued with every tooth in which DD1 asks multiple questions about Fairyland and other random ‘growing up’ questions (eg ‘have you ever had an crush’ and ‘do dragons exist, because I’d like to think they do’) and Harriet painstakingly replies. She introduced DD2’s fairy, Elsie, a couple of years ago, and Elsie now does likewise with DD2!

Oh amazing!!

Yes my DDs have a spa and you can go there and get treatments, etc. Mostly in the bath or the paddling pool. It’s a bit of a weird place though because one of the people who work there is the owners daughter, who is actually a little ape who doesn’t know that she’s an ape. You have to be really careful what you say about this.

My older DS is only 2 so we are at the start of this. He sometimes says 'there is a dinosaur in the house' I ask him if it is Oscar the friendly dinosaur. There is also a really nice tree you can see from his bedroom window, we say hello to it in the mornings.

Haha yes we do 😂😂 dc1 is in their final year of uni and sometimes we whatssap each other about what ‘crecia’ has been up to 🤣 (crecia rhymes with… actually I’ve been thinking and I can’t come up with anything that rhymes with crecia but it’s pronounced creesha)
The other day even dh messaged them saying crecia had hidden his keys and he had to stay at home longer and have another cup of tea while he waited for her to return them.
It was the first ‘imaginary friend’ of any of the dc and the one that has stayed around the longest! I much prefer crecia to ‘the ghost’ that dc3 befriended 😳

During lockdown we had a challenge to tell stories with loo rolls. Every time you finished a roll, you had to draw a picture on it that added to the story. Like story dice, but with loo roll tubes.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

That sounds a lot more fun than making sourdough