[hoohoobump]

Today DS (almost 3) decided that he has a friend at home. In the space of half an hour he had a name, an age, a personality, things he liked to eat, what he likes to wear etc etc. We read this new friend a bedtime story, sang him a song and put him to sleep in his imaginary cot. DS even 'introduced' him to Nanna on the phone. I wonder if he will remember his friend 'Tom' in the morning?

Anyone else's toddler had an imaginary friend?

[adl]

No but I recently saw a doco on it and it bodes well...

All about a great imagination, perception , and the ability of thinking outside the square I think from memory....may have been on AB C????

[luke's mummu]

Yes my 7 year old has "underground friends" which come up to the above ground occasionally. Mainly when he is feeling stressed. there are about 30 of them, and some of them even have wives!

[Flutter Bug]

My nearly 3 year old DD does.

He (the imagined friend) was a pretty constant fixture in her play at home when he first 'arrived' 6 months ago. DD talks to him, asks him questions, tells him what she is doing/what he is going to do etc.. She plays with him the same as she would a real, live child. But she doesn't talk about him to us, although we do know his name.

He hasn't been mentioned as often recently but I have noticed that DD plays with her imaginary friend more during times of stress/change/anxiety. DD has a fabulous imagination, I see it as no harm. Her imaginary friend seems to offer her comfort and a 'constant' and now that I think about it he appeared not long after her baby sister was born!

It's interesting to hear about other parents experiences with this as I have only ever met one other child who had an imaginary friend (a five year old Kindergarten student that I taught).

[TheGreenSheep]

Oh yeah, loved that phase!

When DS1 was 3yo he had groups of friends, boys and girls. We took them everywhere. Loved it. He just grew out of it. Puts a smile on my fave thinking about it now .

[Ehubrydd]

My almost 3yo shares an imaginary friend with my 4yo. My 4yo first introduced him to us, but my nearly 3yo started playing with our friend straight away. Our friend joins in with many of our games and comes to the park with us. Sometimes my children disagree about what he is doing or wants to do though

My boys' imaginary friend has an imaginary friend of his own so no one gets left out when my children just want to play together without their friend.

[nlman]

No but my brother did. Apparently Michael, the friend, hung around for years.

[Chelara]

Yep my 3.5 year old does too. It started with a dog and now it's a fire engine. She tells me they're pretend but she really loves it when I play along.

[mallowpuff]

My two and a bit year old has an imaginary friend called Bernard, who fits in the palm of his hand and comes on outings with us sometimes. I think it's cute, and no different from all the other make believe stuff he does.

[quangle~wangle~q...]

My DD has one. She is 5 1/2 now, but her friend Brian has been around since she was about 3. He has a huge extended family, and she apparently spends a lot of time at his house, doing endless exciting things (Brian has his own aeroplane which he flies himself!).

He is not an imaginary friend of the type that actually comes to our house, but she often mentions how she 'did such and such' at Brian's, or for eg. this morning she told me she doesn't like egglplant and I said how did she know when she has never eaten it and of course she replied, "I have had it at Brian's".
There is absolutely nothing you can ask her about Brian that she can't come out with a detailed and immediate reply to.
It is very amusing. Sometimes I just engage her in conversation about him for fun and to see what she will come up with.