Imaginary friends. Totally normal to have one or a way of working through feeling scared/unsure?

[robino]

Just interested really. It must be said that Tilly the imaginary rabbit is doing my nut in to the extent that I fancy making imaginary rabbit pie but I hadn't thought anything of her other than that.

Mentioned her to my mum who has since been coming up with theories about why Tilly has made an appearance in DD's life. DD is 3.6; I thought it was completely normal. What do you reckon?

I had three - they were good fun but very naughty

My eldest had an imaginary friend who had to have a place set at the dinner table every night,3rd child had 2 imaginary friends.
I think its quite normal,they don't seem disturbed or lonely!

i had one. dd1 and ds1 didn't, dd2 did. in fact she had several. sometimes children can create imaginary friends to deal with something, but mostly they just appear, are a fantastic way of using a burgeoinignimagination, and disappear a year or two later.
at one point dd2 had the whole cast of balamory living on her top bunk, and a raft of visitors from 'invisible land' where she went every night.
tilly sounds adorable. my imaginary friend was called tibdy.

Fabulous we still talk about dcs imaginary friends with fondness that they don't come here any more.

DD2 has one, I think it's a sign of having a rich imagination whihc is quite 'normal' for a child.

Be a bit worrying in an adult though

Jolly good! My mum is normally quite sage so I just needed confirmation that on this occasion she's a bit off .

Now all I need to hope is that Tilly the Rabbit is a good girl today and doesn't need to be marched off to the stairs and told to "think" by a very serious three year old with quite the same frequency as yesterday. And that the baby bear who is left here while her mum and dad go shopping doesn't need to sleep (requiring complete silence from the entire household) quite as much.

It's when they were hungry but were very faddy eaters that used to drive me mad.

I was told that often it can be a sign of intelligence. Whether that is true or not, I have no idea, but as my DD has imaginary friends, I'm going to believe it regardless

My DD has two Polly Putthekettleon and Suki takeitoffagain.

They drive me insane as well. Particularly when I have to pretend to belt them up in the car.

We have two palm sized tigers who live on a dirty sock in the corner of our bathroom. Heaven forbid you should move the sock and disturb them!

They grow when they are outdoors and need to be leashed. I often have to walk them. They have a friend dog called Scruffy 2. He is very naughty. We have to chase him down the street when he runs away. Scruffy 2 lives under dd2's bed when he is not running away.

My DD had three - Mr Nobody, Mrs I Don't Know & the Inquisible Man. She used to do very complex four-way conversations in the bath & got VERY annoyed when she was punished because Mr Nobody had drawn on the wall or thrown her vegetables on the floor

I had imaginary pets. Now I have lots of real ones!!! The imaginary horses were the best but I can't afford to upgrade yet! lol

You had imaginary horses too! I had LOADS of them!
Although mine all had wings & could talk.

Totally normal. Dd's pretty much went away when she started Reception. I miss them a bit actually.

Someone on here was thinking about doing some academic research into imaginary friends. I wonder if she ever did? I think it would be fascinating.

I agree - a way of using their ever increasing imagination.

Dd1 had Conker - he used to live under the dining room table and I actually got to see what he looked like when she did his Mi on our Wii.

Now Dd2 has decided there is a Big Conker and a Little Conker. It gets confusing.

DD has lots and lots. She is neither scared nor unsure. Blomphus the Bear, Sheeva the Pink Ant, Alex the Truant. EllyPeanutTree et al have been here since before she was 2 and their numbers are increasing.

I think anything which happens on Charlie and Lola is quite desirable. Since Lola has Soren Lorensen you should be proud of Tilly!

DS is 3.7 and has a number of imaginary friends. He acknowledges them as imaginary, by calling them 'pretend x'. He picks his favourite characters from tv shows, Pretend Dora features the most. He generally only has them when he's at home, not at pre-school etc, coz he wants to play with them.

He asks me where they are, what they are doing, tells me about things they have done.

We had a Pretend Birthday Party for Pretend Dora last week. I had to help him make party hats and he wrapped up his Thomas train to give to her. I'm sure she was delighted .

I thought it was all fairly normal and assume that they will go away again when he's ready.

Might show my mum this to convince her that it is totally normal and a sign of great intelligence.

Am quite delighted that Tilly doesn't live on a dirty sock or require as much memory as the extra inhabitants in SOH's household

Mine have had loads. DS used to make us wait while Jake went downstairs. Our favourite one though is still George-the-bin-roll-up-the-bath, and if your Mum can interpret that we would be grateful.

Oops - there is supposed to be a after "great intelligence".

Mummytime - my mum would probably claim he's terrified of something ; I'd suggest it's the intelligence thing again