Lying - making stuff up. should I worry?

[marge2]

DS1 (&) has started coming out with the most outrageous lies. Not about real stuff, so he doesn;t try to tell me he didn;t hit his brotehr when he did.. but he comes out with the most outrageous fabrications. I can ride my bike at 50mph. I can swim underwater on my back for 20 minutes. I went to Africa when I was a baby and I killed a lion. He has an imaginary pet/thing called Paddywack, that supposedly lives in the woods and he makes up the most amazing stories about what it does, says, how old it is. Apparently it was it's birthday yestrday.

These tall tales are getting more frequent and a bit annoying. I have been ooh-ing and aah-ing and playing along with it a a bit. But should I call him on it?? or should I just let him have it?. I have tried saying - 'Look - you and I both know that's not true' - but he gets all upset with me.

Advice on how to handle please?

he's 7 by the way - not &

DS2 is 6 and he does this, they are mostly fantasies, If I say that the moon is coming out he has seen 50 stars already, if Joe scored a goal during football at lunchtime he scored 12
he goes into detail about these amazing stories and I have stopped getting annoyed by it.
there is a program he has seen on CbbC that has a line "in your imagination" said in a spooky type of way, so now when he goes off on one with his tall tales, in a lightearted manner say "in your imagination" same as the program at him and we end up giggling.

Like BTP says I didn't want to squash his imaginative skills but I also wanted him to know that I knew it wasn't the truth.

BTP I love the idea of writing it down in a story.

Yes - getting him to write it down would be great - a miracle - but great! He could certanly do with the writing practice. He's a very active kind of boy and isn't one to happily sit down for ages doing homework or whatever.

I'll suggest it to him. As you say I don't want to squash his imagination but he is way old enough to understand that it is only his imagination and he gets so angry when I raise my eyebrows or something.

He sat for hours writing out the story of Indiana Jones once in his school writing book. It was a big thing for him as he hates doing homework and he did it off his own bat only asking me a for help with tricky words. I thought it was amazing - a whole page - his ruddy teacher didn't even give it a tick or anything. I really felt like waving it in her face and yelling - Have you even SEEN this??

BTP sounds like your sons in in nice school. The only clubs that get any encouragement fronmour head are the sports ones - everything else is 'voluntary' inlunchtime, so hardly anyone plays a musical instrument or anything. She's mad on sport whcih is good I suppose, but everything else takes a back seat.

Good job DS is sporty then!

sorry about my spelling today - tired fingers!

I wouldn't worry as long as you are both clear it is fantasy, not reality. It's lovely that he has such a great imagination. Maybe try encouraging him to think about being someone else - not just imagining HE can do X Y or Z but what it must be like to be an Olympic swimmer or to go on safari? Maybe get some books out of the library on whatever topic he's currently enjoying?

My ds has just turned seven and has a rich fantasy life. Apparently when I'm not around, he and dh go off to run their multi-national sweetie conglomerate. The people in the insurance broker's on the high street are his overseas sales reps. He also has his own steam railway to run. He knows this is make believe and enjoys it for what it is.