3yo Imaginary "friends" telling him what to do

[TottWriter]

I'm at my wit's end! DS is three and has a whole collective of imaginary friends called "the people" who live in the ceiling. This was not great to begin with as they were more like imaginary enemies, scaring him at night and preventing him from sleeping. We got by because there was a counter imaginary friend to protect him from them. All part of the territory I guess.

The trouble is, now "The People" are seemingly in charge of his life! They are now telling him he can't eat dinner, can't drink his milk, has to misbehave, can't do this, must do that... Now, I can understand him using the people as an excuse for bad behaviour. But why is he saying that the people tell him he can't do things he normally enjoys?

Oh, and he doesn't bring up the people with DP unless I'm around. Arg! Any ideas?

Ignore, ignore, ignore...he's playing a merry little game with you and the more you rise the more he'll do it. If there was anything to worry about then he would play the game with DP too.

So, while ignoring the 'The People' (who incidentally I would like to borrow...I'm sorry officer, I was doing 120 because 'The People' like to drive fast ), give lots of attention, praise and hugs and cuddles when he's behaving how you want. Tell him exactly what you like about his behaviour when you're praising him.

Or perhaps the people who live in YOUR bedroom ceiling keep telling you not to give him treats!!! Not to take him to the park!! Not to give him pudding! Then maybe you could BOTH ignore your people :)

Mommyloveskisses Oh, I like that one!

In fairness he's not 100% at the moment. But Daddy got a touch of "but the people say..." today from him. Then he told me that the people said he wasn't allowed to play with his toys. Cue him standing over them, and saying "No, DS. You are not allowed to play with your people" (Happyland figurines, not ceiling-types). I had to bite my lip when he stomped his foot and told the ceiling-People to go away, then turned to me with a smile on his face and asked "Is that alright?"

Hopefully this will mark a turning point. The people have stopped scaring him at night now, so fingers crossed we're naturally reaching the end of this stage in their existence. Urg. My DS would have to have developed imaginary friends who boss him around. I thought children were supposed to imagine playmates, not mortal foes!

You are not alone.

Ds2 had some horrid imaginary friends called Mr Poo and Markum. They were really rude and dirty and told DS2 he was rubbish at everything. They were replaced recently by "the horses" who are much nicer and even useful on the school run.

Is there a magical fairy that could come to your house and tell the 'The People' to fly away, like the dummy fairy only better

DD1 had an imaginary friend who had five sisters (all with names). She was once messing around so much with them when DH was driving that he pulled over and ordered all of her imaginary to get out of the car.

She is six now and she still remembers. She was laughing about it the other day (in a very knowing grown up way) but at the time it was terrible.

hehehe what a clever little chap you have! Imaginary friends are signs of intelligence I have been told a few times. My ds had 3 imaginary friends at 3 years old....whenever anything naughty happened, it was always one of the imaginary friends who did it, not ds. He will grow out of it. My ds is also 6 now and still remembers them and laughs too.

you have a bright little boy imagining such things and it's really interesting that he is playing with the concept of right and wrong. i would sort something magical out (dust or pretend magic pills, a spell etc) and make a whole scene of giving it to the invisible people. see how the magic dust makes the invisible people good and well behaved like knights or policemen