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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to find DS's imaginary friend flipping annoying?

62 replies

meowmix · 08/10/2007 15:09

i mean yadda yadda fertile imagination blah creative blah just play and all that but flipping heck its irritating the socks off me. Its like having another child without the sex first.

and if DS tells me I can't "sit there because thats where Peter is" one more time I swear I'll throw the imaginary blighter out the door so fast his feet won't touch the ground.

OP posts:
casbie · 09/10/2007 11:04

this is a bit creepy....

my dd had her own rrom and used to say that a little old lady used to come to her at night-time and sit on the end of the bed and talk to her - i didn't know what to say - there was an old lady who died and the son sold the house to us - so that really creeped us out!

her other imaginary friend was a unicorn pony, which she rode to school everyday, far less scary!

minouminou · 09/10/2007 14:33

wow - a spectral nanny - fantastic - i want one.....
preferably one from the 17th century, then i can pay her in spectral shillings and not have to fr*g around with busy bees vouchers
mind you, just recently ds and the dog have become firm friends, and he's not hanging off my skirts so much when he's at home and i'm attempting to do a few mins work
the dog gets paid in kibble

ThreadyKrueger · 09/10/2007 14:36

ds2 used to have an imaginary door in his bedroom which gave way to an imaginary huge room with an imaginary huge fish tank housing an imaginary blue whale. When we drove anywhere there was an imaginary river alongside us which the imaginary whale swam in.

possetwiper · 09/10/2007 14:42

we have a female cat called max and very complicated stories which I get in a right muddle with and then get told off for not remembering that max has 4 kittens blah blah blah

Original poster
meowmix · 09/10/2007 15:11

Ah well last night Peter (who is apparently DS's twin, which I am oh so sure has nothing to do with his forthcoming birthday and expectations of double presents) got into trouble for letting Tinkerbell in through the window and her waking us all up.

So my child is Peter Pan's twin brother. Nothing good can come of this.

Anyway, Tinkerbell was sealed in a jar by my imaginary inner bitch and the jar put in the deep freeze. That'll learn her, the flighty minx.

OP posts:
Vikkin · 09/10/2007 15:16

I get so p'd off with imaginary friend, especially when she sits in the front seat of the car, which she does frequently dd(5) has been told so many times that she can't sit up front cos the police will put mummy in jail, that imaginary friend is now trying to get me put into prison.
Also, if I try to jump in the bath with dd, I always sit on imaginary friend.

iloveknitting · 09/10/2007 19:10

my mum once had to pay a bus fare for my sisters imaginary friend.

Fennel · 10/10/2007 13:41

I found dd2, aged 4, in tears once, because her imaginary friend was better than her at reading and maths.

Not that she's competitive, oh no....

kitsandbits · 10/10/2007 13:42

My cousins imaginary friend was all 3 from 'busted' the band

Her dad had to set table places for Matt, James and Charlie or she would eat,

kitsandbits · 10/10/2007 13:42

wouldn't eat even

Piffle · 10/10/2007 13:49

We are currently reminiscing about ds1s friends - he is now 13 and we are taking part in a documentary film about them Hum and Rom they were called
Man they were mad little things, we had to get airline tickets for them, bus tickets, block up plugholes, keyholes and windows lest the fall into such a hazard or escape.
Many mad moments indeed and thean aged 6 ds1 would wake up thoroughly knackered, as he'd been out flying with them all night.
Miss them?
Yes and mostly no

DD is 5 and has a couple now, but hers are simply playmates, easy easy easy

edam · 10/10/2007 14:03

Blimey, I'm grateful ds's imaginary friend was so tame compared to this lot!

He told everyone that he had a little brother called Daniel. I had to set a place at breakfast for Daniel, give him a bowl of cereal and a slice of toast. I wasn't allowed to throw the food away before we left the house. But when we came back later, ds would happily polish off the stale toast and cereal on the grounds that Daniel had left it...

BOOndle · 10/10/2007 14:03

I think YABU, as I quite like Mr Bocaloo, Grandma and Darling

Marina · 10/10/2007 14:10

Ds' imaginary friend was Randall from Monsters Inc, we do miss him quite a bit. He had a symbolic importance in our lives at the time.
Dd's imaginary friend is called Sweetheart, bundle

TheMoistWorldOfSpetimusQuench · 10/10/2007 16:12

DD's imaginary 'friend' is called Auntie Pesto. She's "a lovely old lady, with nice grey hair, and red coat and lovely brown socks". She phones us up & comes round to deliver jars of pesto that she's made in her shop.

I asked after Auntie Pesto last week as we hadn't heard from her for a while, only to be informed "she's dead". Apparently she died in a car crash. However, on Sunday DD announced to some friends that Auntie Pesto had got better & was celebrating her 100th birthday. Phew!

This thread is helping to allay my fear that DD is ever so slightly bonkers

Bink · 10/10/2007 22:21

I probably will, one day, miss Freddie the flying-whale, and Pew, Bella, LittleB and Draffir (rest of the flying-whale pod whose names I remember), the Badlanders (evil but stupid, enemies of the flying-whales), the Igglebongs (evil but with a glimmer of ability), the Hooligs (evil but clever - particularly good at possessing ordinary London pigeons so as to execute their wicked plots), the palipoms (birds with fur instead of feathers & complex genetics (of which charts are drawn) producing corkscrew beaks, & short beaks, & all kinds of different colouration), the Noise Whales, the Space Mice (which breathe helium & therefore move by hovering), the currency (one Rai, two-or-more Rain, complete with forex tables) ...

Issy · 10/10/2007 22:31

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request

Bink · 11/10/2007 10:15

Issy - I had rather a vivid fantasy life (being an orphan etc., as you do) but that's all. Actually of course fantasising about being an orphan is about solitariness - so psychologically must be the opposite of imaginary friends ... Hmm. Am from big family.

Ds's stuff has, completely conversely, got everything to do with sibling-connection - he and dd have constructed all this together (Freddie was originally dd's "pet" in "Dreamland" (which is the core invention, and was ds's)). It's rather fun to listen to them improvising - dd's initiations tend to be sound-effects, which ds then interprets into the weave - "Dd! I heard that! That was an Escalator Whale!" (this morning's invention).

However, she wouldn't do it without him - & he is the one who does all the graphic recording (my current favourite is a brightly-coloured chart of Flying-Whale Trade Routes - I think it owes something to that book you gave your dh for Christmas & I also found for mine ).

duchesse · 11/10/2007 10:22

All I can suggest is that Peter should be subject to exactly the same rules as your son (ie don't let him get away with murder just because you can't see him...), but that maybe your son should be responsible for ensuring that Peter does not get into any mischief. Brighter children are supposed to be more prone to imaginary friends.

My daughter had a friend called Bella (pre Tweenies, I hasten to add) for over a year. Bella had a 3rd birthday party (the week before my daughter turned 3 herself) in the garage and never came back. This happened as soon as I started to take an active interest in her. I think that maybe imaginary friends are part of a child's private life, a little bit of their world that as toddlers and small children they can have control over; hence encouraging your son to do the discplining...

Original poster
meowmix · 11/10/2007 10:30

Peter unbuckled his seat belt in the car on the way to school today and DS told him off.... in exactly the way I'd tell him. I think the chat about Peter having to behave too worked.

still don't like the little imaginary brat tho [scuffs feet sulkily]

OP posts:
seeker · 11/10/2007 10:38

I love my dcs imaginary friends - they are always so much more interesting and and intelligent than their real friends!

What I couldn't stand was dd's alter ego. Every mow and again she would become this seriously pain in the neck person called Baby Holly. She was awful - coy,precociousl, precious, fluffy and seriously icky. SO glad when she vanished!

Marina · 11/10/2007 11:09

Oh seeker, that strikes such a chord. At the moment dd's alter ego is the simpering, wriggling "Baby Ruby". Randall was bad. Randall was anarchic. Randall was fun.
Your dc's imaginary world sounds very Bronte-esque Bink. Hathersage transplanted to urban London

Bink · 11/10/2007 11:27

Marina - Gondal has crossed my mind from time to time
Also, I'm pretty sure Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell comes out of a similar folie a freres (to coin a phrase) - it's one of the reasons it's not-quite-coherent, imaginatively.

I wonder though what the respective parents did - did they get involved? I rather adore the palipoms, & have been known to speak Hooliggery.

Marina · 11/10/2007 11:40

We were always keen to hear what Randall had been up to (he went away on adventures and reported back, he was never a dinner guest or a scapegoat). Baby Ruby I try to ignore.
I did not know that about Susanna Clarke bink! But what sense it makes. Folie a freres - thank goodness Conn and Hal Iggulden resisted the temptation.

Songbird · 11/10/2007 11:51

My brother (40 in december) had three imaginary friends called Debda, Janus and The Monkey. He used to carry them around in the little trailer attached to his ride-on tractor. Don't know where Debda came from but Janus is the Roman God of gates/doorways, so obviously my bro had friends in high places .