Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Another imagination/imaginary friend question

I've posted before on my DD2.5's weird stuff. Today she said, "I've been talking to Caitlyn. She can bend time. She comes and talks to me on my (toy) cell phone."

She has several other people she talks about. I could go on and on. DD even talks about living on another planet, and I didn't even know she knew what a planet was.

Tell me your kids have imaginary friends.

DD has a fantastic imagination, but some of this stuff is a little "out there" for me.

Wow seablue - I love it! You have a future SF fan I'm quite sure. Ask DD what she means by bending time, and let me know.
You might want to try reading 'A wrinkle in time' to her, if it's not too scary.

smiles,
grin

Oh, my stars, they have a village full...first there were Verty and Ochre, who lived at the farm up the road (next to the South African sausage maker), who owned a restaurant in Italy and went there on Thursdays to cover the chef's day off...

Then there were King Richard, Prince Ethelred, and William the Courtsman, who spent their days fighting the evil Prustes and championing the fair Sonica...

These days, it's the Cabin Boy, the Hero, and the Navigator, who are sailing a sloop around the world and discovering at least one new species on each continent...

Oh, and I mustn't forget the Ghost of Booglaboo...

Caitlyn sounds quite useful--maybe she could bend me back to 29 or so!

Seriously, the gang of characters is quite useful--if people are getting a bit rude, I just say, "would Prince Ethelred speak to the Queen Mother that way?", and that's usually the end of the problem.

Don't worry--she sounds delightful! Just have fun, and store up all these stories like treasures in your heart...

peace
minnie

Thanks, Grinity and Minnie! I do love A Wrinkle in Time, which is what I thought of immediately, but she's not ready for that yet (or The Matrix, which uses a telephone). My gosh, I'm not even sure DD knows what "time" is.

Minnie, last night DD was crawling along the back of the couch, saying, "Ha ha! My cousins are following me!" and she had "people with no names" out in the back yard who "have not been born yet." Maybe not character-driven people, but I"m going to treat it that way.

DD is highly theatrical. I plan to check into the singing-dancing-acting class when she reaches the minimum age. She's a hoot!

Here a great one to read. It was you Blue Kangaroo. It is about an imaginary freind that get blamed for what the little girl does.

My kids both had imaginary friends. My DS9 had buz light year.

I wish I could remember my daughters. you better right this stuff down.

Cool! I love time benders. Don't forget to write down these great stories!


DS5 has talked to the ghosts in our house since he was about 2. (Well, I kind of hope they are imaginary.) Just yesterday, I heard him talking right after he woke up, and he told me he was just talking to the 2 ghosts in his room. He also has a whole never-ending imaginary world story that he and his grandma make up together.

I love the stories. They cracked me up. My kids have friends too. Lately the friends have been breaking a lot of rules so I have told DD3 that she cannot play with friends who don't respect rules. That has worked to stop them. If only I could have that much control over the kids. hehehe

LOL SPG, I really hope your ghosts are imaginary. My DS7 when he was 2 used to describe them to me and I spent many nights awake. He never seemed bothered by them either like your son. Scarrrryyyy. Never have been able to watch "The sixth sense" since.

Glad everybody still has lots of "company" at home these days! Y'all with the resident ghosts and nameless unborn backyard inhabitants need to read your kids the "Green Knowe" books when they're old enough--just the ticket, I'd say...

peace
minnie

Oh, I do miss my oldest's imaginary friends. We did call them her I.F. She had so many! I think the peak was probably from before 2 to 3 or so. We believe that her sister becoming more interactive took over the IF.

They were all related to one another, had backstories, got married, had imaginary babies, etc. The most confusing part is that she had at least 4 Ticos at some point, one was based on Dora's character; one was a green-nosed moose.

She is bilingual (we only speak Sp. at home) as were most of her IF, but one of them only spoke English. Usually she spoke to them in Sp. if she was with us, and in Eng. if with her nanny. IT cracked us up, however, when she was having conversations in Sp. with us (say at the dinner table), and then turned and spoke in English to IF.

A few tidbits on IF:
- much more common in gifted dc
- more common in highly verbal kids (these 2 combined make me think, in our dd's case for example, she had no real peers who spoke nearly as well as she did....)
- many fiction writers report having had IF
- more common in only children.
- more prevalent in girls than boys.

Forgot to say 2 things. 1) the time bending is hilarious! 2) Enjoy them while they last. While I have heard of many kids losing their friends over a specific incident (getting lost on vacation, dying, etc.) our DD's simply slowly disappeared. We suddenly realized they were gone.

I still remember my imaginary friends! Their names were "Squeaky" and "Bookey" and I had to leave them behind when I moved cross country at the age of four. I'm still not entirely clear on whether it was my idea or my parents' to leave them behind.

My DD8 had a wonderful IF named "Prince John", who disappeared around the time she was 4.5, when her little brother was born. I happened to notice he hadn't been around lately, so I asked her about him. She told me that he'd left on a long trip and he was too busy and didn't have time for her any more. Ouch.