To be a little freaked out?

[Chocolateeggsarebetterthannormalchocolate]

Wasn't sure where to post this so sorry, here I am!

We'd been out for tea tonight so back and in bed a little later. My DS (3) wanted me to lie next to him while he went to sleep so I did. I thought I heard him say something along the lines of "little boy not yet, mummy and daddy are here/awake". I asked him what he'd just said and he giggled. I asked him who he was talking to/if he said "little boy" and he said yes. I stupidly asked where the little boy was and he said sleeping on the floor. I again stupidly asked if he was there now and he said yes. DS didn't seem remotely bothered, but I've not told DH for tonight as he'll freak out.

AIBU to be slightly freaked out by this myself even though I know lots of children have imaginary friends when they are younger? I'm sure lots of others have stories like these!! Please tell me them as I'm a wee bit nosey/fascinated!

I think imaginary friends are pretty normal at this age?

I think so too

I set a place at the table for Peggy Patch from Play Days for months about 28/9 years ago. She was ever present in our house. I expect it's an imaginary thing and not a ghosty thing.

Aww I used to love playing Peggy Patch 🤣 I hope so. I've certainly never felt weirded out in any way.

Imaginary friend is most likely but perhaps the little boy is a ghost??

I think people were politely trying to talk the OP down from this alternative 🤣

My Dd often used to scare the living daylights out of me. I'd be sitting watching TV / reading a book & she'd look up/ across & say: 'they're sitting right next to you Mum'. Or, if we passed on the stairs she'd wait for 'them' to go by too. Her older brother had a quiet word in the end I think. Or maybe they went away / she realised I was scared. It went on, in phases, for years. OP, at your Ds' age, its probably an imaginary friend. Fingers crossed he grows out of it.

My son used to talk about the lights that moved around his room at night. It freaked me out a bit. Especially when I started watching Most Haunted……. He soon stopped though and I’ve (tried to) ignored it ever since.

My imaginary friend lived in the pantry and was called Julie.
She had a place set at the table and one of my mum's favourite stories to tell is of the time that I made her stop the car in Tesco car park because we'd left her behind.
I turned out ok (I think)

When my niece was about 12 months she would sometimes stare at ceiling, laughing with her arms up in the air, like she had her arms out for someone to lift her, it used to freak me out so much 😂

I've never been one to ignore the elephant in the room! 😂

Perhaps it's an old house?!? 🤔

1920's I think! Before we bought it there was one family in it for a loooong time, and not sure before that! We've had some hugely strange coincidences (well 1, and 1 a lot less huge), but nothing spooky before.

That said, I like hearing other people's stories!

My 1 year old does this thing where in bed he'll suddenly stare at the ceiling and follow something with his eyes then make a growl/back of throat sort of noise a few times. We live in a very old stone house with the usual creaks, apparently the painter decorator before we moved in said there's an old woman in the attic but she's looking forward to new residents... I don't believe in ghosts but at 2am in the dark, when your baby who mimics everything is growling at something it's bloody spooky. Think he's just being the wierdo that 1 Yr old are (I do offer him water before someone thinks he's gasping from thirst 😅). It'll just be their great imaginary play, my sister had an imaginary friend for ages too, I had an imaginary horse 🤣

Kids say utterly batshit things.

I still remember putting my daughter to bed when she was wee and her saying "mummy, say goodnight to the red man too or he'll be cross". Right you are Regan MacNeil I'll get right on that.

My dc randomly said, "It was an accident and Grandpa is so sad." My dad died years ago, so long before dc was even a thought. My dad had been in an accident that left him with a disability. This has never been spoken about in front of dc and hasn't even been brought up for years. 🤔🫣

Well I don't like the sound of the red man! Little boy sounds much friendlier!

Oh wow, that's spooky then!

I had an imaginary friend when I was that age. It is very common.

He had to sit at the dinner table with us and my parents even had to make sure they had put him in the car with me if we were going out anywhere. If I decided he was missing then they had to turn back and go back into the house to get him. Only then would I settle down into the journey. Same on the way home if we managed to leave him at the place we had been visiting. 🙄

He disappeared when my younger sister was born and didn't resurface as an entity in his own right again.

I'm almost 58 now so it was quite some time ago.

I can’t remember this but my Mum can and retold to a friend a number of years ago.

my aunts best friends daughter and I used to play together - I still remember this 40 years later. We were friends but saw each other only occasionally.

sadly she got ill and I remember going to visit her in hospital. The gymnastics were on the tv in black and white (weird detail I know).

one morning I apparently went down to my Mum and said Carly had come to visit me in the night and asked me to go with her. To which I replied no I want to sleep. You know what is coming next… very sadly she had passed away the previous day but I was of an age that I wouldn’t have been told and I certainly wouldn’t have understood.

it was a very very long time ago now and whilst I don’t recall that event, I still remember her fondly and often wonder what type of amazing woman she would have become.

i think children are often much more receptive than we are. But for the purposes of calming the OP I’m sure it’s their new imaginary friend 😉

My DS had an imaginary friend who he used to talk to often. My DD had imaginary friends too - lots of them! It's funny to look back on now they are adults. Thankfully, their friends are now real life but they do remember their imaginary friends. Very normal, I wouldn't worry at all.

My DD used to talk about 'the scary man in the corner' (only of my bedroom, reassuringly) when she was about 2.5/3.

I think toddlers are just tripping.

My DD started telling me about "the mother I had before" one day. When I pressed for more details about how there was a mother before me she wasn't sure but she was insistent that she had been in a different family with brothers. I get chills when I think about it....! But as my name suggests, I love a new woo thread on MN more than anything! 😅
There is a story that often gets mentioned on here (not about imaginary friends) about The Boy in the Nightclub and also the one with the dogs in the forest. I hope someone can find them; they are freaking awful! 💀

Not quite the same but one day out of the blue my GS said 'when I was little you were Nana C' I asked him to repeat and he did. Nana C was my great grandmother who died decades before I was born. Her name was never mentioned. He was 2 at the time.

I don't suppose it is any different to when DC's teddy had to sit at the table, have a knife and fork and some food in a bowl for every meal for months. We sometimes had to wait for teddy to finish, sometimes teddy couldn't eat his meal because I'd forgotten to give him a glass of water.

Its a phase although I'd be unnerved enough to leave a small light on

I remember when my three year old used to talk to Mrs Lollypop, who had a red face and no legs 🤣🙈 she’s now six and she sometimes makes an appearance. Absolutely terrifying!