DD has two imaginary friends: Alex who goes to school and waters plants and the elephant who has no name but eats gravel

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I was not prepared for this. I thought we had a couple of years grace before I had to start taking an extra banana with us for the elephant that lives in the bloody apple tree.

Alex, who is at school atm gets very tired and needs to go out for a walk after dinner. I have to hold his hand fgs.

How far do I allow this to go? I had to prevent dh from sitting on Alex this morning and put out an extra chair at the table.

Is Alex staying around for long? Somebody tell me that imaginary friends go off to boarding school eventually.

I'm just glad the elephant's too big to fit through the door.

pmsl how old is dd? ds's imaginary friend is called Ben. (oddly, the dog is called benji and at least 2 if his toys are also called ben) i have to hold ben's hand, tell him off if he messes about near the road, stop people sitting on him and kiss him goodnight.

LOL. DS apparently has twin babies in his tummy, and woe betide you should you squeeze them. The babies also seem to need specific foods - strawberries for instance.

She turned 2 last month. She told the hv all about Alex at her 2 year check. Said hv looked at us like we were feeding dd hallucinogenics.

Alex, thankfully, like peas and carrots best. I don't expect this to last.

lol ben likes chocolate milk and sausages best. ds also got v upset on sun when i didnt get ben an icecream. wicked mummy!

They are funny, aren't they? My DS has a pink, tiny dragon that he blames for all manner of things. My nephew insists that he has a ghost friend called George that he found in a skip.

My ds is 4.5 and still has his imaginary friend. Woogy is his name and he lives in ds's tummy , if ds does something naughty, he always blames Woogy. I have to now tell Woogy and ds off at the same time!

Ah, DD has THREE, yes three of the buggers. There is Peppa, Dora and Baby.

• Peppa, I am fairly confident is a pig.

• Dora, I think, comes from me calling DD/DH/anyone 'Dopey Dora'.

• Baby - I guess she just couldn't be bothered to name the baby.

Whenever we go out in the car at least two of them come with us and DD unfastens seatbelts, lifts them into their seats and refastens the seat belts. Cute the first half dozen times, now bloody annoying. I guess I should be glad that she is safety concious.

DD is just three btw.

They sound fab!

I think it is incredibly sweet, i have NO experience of it though. Mine clearly have no need for imaginary friends, in fact they probably wish for some to vanish

I can't wait to see her next month. I am hoping she can teach B to have some of his own and perhaps they will teach him to SLEEP.

Have you seen Drop Dead Fred?

Sorry, brief pause to visit ageing relative.

Took Alex to a softplay hell place today. DD lost him in the balls. Mummy had to stumble ungracefully through said plastic spheres calling out to the invisible child.

lg&t, I had two imaginary friends as a child and took them everywhere for far longer than was healthy.

Drop Dread Fred is one of my favourite films.

"ooh lovely, you look like a big bruise"

"dog poo, dog poo, lovely, lovely dog poo"

I wonder where dd gets it from...

Well, we had Donald, the female train, who was always responsible for bad behaviour in the house.....and came out with us too....dd would turn round (in company) and remonstrate with Donald and "her" behaviour...This went on from about 3-4...(she's 5.5 now) So, you might have to take the extra buns for a while yet, but this too shall pass......

Ds has Baby Jack - who has changed sex since he/she first arrived (spookily, about the time of edd of mc post ds) - we don't hear as much of him as we used to now (ds 4.2) but he still occasionally comes along in the car, for a day out or on holiday - and of course still gets used as an excuse (Baby Jack did it) - we never had to feed him or save a chair though.

However, we have been through the park, me pushing the buggy, ds (then 2.6?) walking beside me, holding my hand, clearly holding someone else's hand the other (it was Freddie, one of his friendly monsters) and apparently Baby Jack was sitting in the buggy and holding Jessie's hand (you guessed it, another friendly monster!)

DD (3 next week) has five imaginary friends - the main protagonists are two girls called Anky and Chicken. Sometimes these are her children and sometimes they are her big sisters.

Anky and Chicken are sometimes joined by Abigail and Ada - they are collectively called "the little ones" or "the crew" - usually when we are trying to get somewhere in a rush we have to wait for all the little ones to catch us up.

A less regular visitor is "Ginormous Fibber" - we are not really sure as to the age gender or species of this one! He (it) is often playing in our garden so DD has to go out there too so he doesn't get lonely.

My DS used to have the terrifying Crank the Cat, who he was frightened of, and would see everywhere, especially at night. We had to teach DS to scare him away. I know a little girl who has two called Sheila and Tubs, they work with her Grandad in his shed. They are always at the doctors too because (so she says) they are hypochondriacs! She's only 3 so its very amusing to hear her say this!

DS2 has Invisible Sushi Man, gets blamed for things but sadly has yet to make any sushi

my eldest (4) has 2 imaginary friends, 'Child' and 'Baby.'

Basically she just likes to shout at them and beat them in scooter races.

When DD just turned 3 she had 7 imaginary giraffes who walked around with her. She stretched her arms out as far as they'd go at either side to encompass them all. They lived on the landing half-way up our stairs and if she got to bed without them she'd cry "I forgot my giraffes!" have to rush back to the landing and come back up the stairs with her arms outstretched to herd them all up to bed. They only stuck around for a couple of weeks thankfully.

We have a leopard called lucky, he has to go to school and sleeps by the door till home time. DS age 4.

DS 5 has had a few over the last couple of years. The oddest was his imaginary 'uncle' whose house DS apparently used to go to and inevitably would allow ds to do all the stuff we wouldn't do at home. However it did get a bit embarrassing when in earshot of nursery worker or teacher he would say " My uncle lets me jump up and down on his bed when I'm naked"

We have a naughty badger...who is reponsible for anything which goes wrong in the house..or if we lose something etc...as in:

Ds 'I can't find my tiger..the naughty badger must have taken it'

But clever ds, has only just cottoned on to blaming the naughty badger for things he has done!

Occassionally we have a nice badger too.

Not sure why we have a badger though

We have a fox and a turtle that live in the airing cupboard. We are frequently late for nursery becasue we have to wait for fox to do a poo There are also four elephants that live under the bath, fortunately they are well behaved (mostly...)

we have michael the monster. Ds was 2.5 when he appeared. He was around constantly for a few months, seabelt on in the car, dont sit there, you just shut michael out etc

Then michael went back to his own house and only came back for playdates.

apparently he lived in the flats around the corner from us.

We heard less and less of michael and then a few weeks ago at 4 years old he told us he was building an extension out the back for Michael

DD1 had Sulia Julia, an orange-faced moralist, and Meeta Hulee Meatlock, her boyfriend.

DD2 had Granny Moses, who hated her and threatened to lock her in the attic