Does your dc have an imaginary friend?

[MiaWallace]

My dd (age 4) has two imaginary friends that have been dominant features in our lives for the last 18 months.

This has triggered my interest in the role imaginary friends play in children?s lives and I?m considering writing my dissertation on the topic next year.

At the moment I?m just curious how common imaginary friends.

So does your dc have an imaginary friend and if so can you tell me a little bit about them?

is that the one where it's all the departed rellies?

These threads always make me laugh

Ds has had his imaginary family since he was about 2. Started off as Dado (dad) and Jimmy (mum). Kid (baby) appeared soon after. About 18 months later Tommy and Jackie (sometimes young children sometimes teenagers) appeared from nowhere along with Chippy (babysitter). Dado and Jimmy come with me on the train to work (apparently - I've never seen them!). Ds has a variety of different jobs and often has to transport a large team of builders around in his van. Interestingly never when he is with me (I have a two seater sports car). Grandma's Polo seems to accommodate them though - she does get a bit fed up having to hold the door open for them though.

Ds is always making up stories and talking to his imaginery friends. They talk back too(ds does a number of different voices).

I'm thankful that ds is 4 and not 14 as I think I'd be seeking medical help .

Ds is also a master of tall tales which regularly lead to embarrassing conversations with his teachers.

pooter Perfume used to pinch my DD too. I thought it was a bid for a cuddle, but I think she was just working out something about being mean to other people.

Perfume had pink hair, and two friends, Figure Eight and Figure Doll who were a bit nicer, I'm pleased to say.

Who was the woman on the BBC news talking about imaginary friends? Apparently children benefit from having them but I only caught the very end of the interview.

My dd is 4.5. She has one main imaginary friend called Ginnie. Ginnie has 2 brothers called Jakka and Chris (all name spellings are approximate ). Ginnie's Dad quite often makes an appearance too.

The best way to describe dd's interactions with Ginnie is to say that nothing ever happens to us that Ginnie has not experienced. So we'll be on a bus and she'll say "Ginnie was on a bus once..." and then tell a long, complicated tale about what Ginnie got up to on the bus.

Sometimes she speaks about her as if dd is her mother e.g. "Ginnie woke me up really early this morning and I had to put her back to bed" but usually she's more like an older sister. Dd has a 10 yo cousin and I think Ginnie is a lot like her.

Dd is also real chatterbox and dh and I have a theory that Ginnie only really exists to provide dd with something else to talk about.

She very happily describes Ginnie as "my pretend friend" to unwitting adults who question her about what they think is a real person.

I would say dd is a very imaginative child - she enjoys creating stories and scenarios from nothing. She also really enjoys art and crafts. She has lots of real life friends (teacher says she is one of the most popular in the class) but tends to be the boss in a friendship.

She is an only child.

Hope this helps. I think it's an absolutely fascinating subject.

squeaver you could be describing my dd when you say about her only having an IF to have something else to talk about.

Dd seems to typically mention hers when she runs out of other things to talk about.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to post

I was doing a book signing and Q&A the other day and a rather mearvelous old lady asked me if I had any imaginary freinds as a child. I said I did.
It was her thoery that a lot of writers do and that in later lives we take to making them ever more intricate and then write it all down.

Would be interested to know if children with imaginary friends do go on in later life to do soemthing creative.