Child's imaginary friends

[davidsprincess]

I agree with all the previous posters that your friend is wrong. I had an imaginary friend named Sally. DD had several--the one I remember the most was a tiny little girl named Bubble. Bubble fit into dd's pocket so she went everywhere with us for awhile.

My DD has two little friends that fit in her pocket too! Juji and Juja( a brother and sister) and they go with us everywhere. She has had them for about 2 years now.
Oh, and Julietta. DD even said that when she grows up, gets married and has a baby she will name her Julietta.

Then there is Kiki. He died after only a few days. He ate some apples when he was sick and died

 

[All American]

Ever heard the phrase "Imagination is simply intelligence having fun."?

My 5-year-old has, at last count, 13 imaginary brothers. She talks to them, and they have proven to be great playmates. They go everywhere with us, and I just tell her to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get into trouble. She knows they are imaginary and will tell you so, but they are very real to her at the same time. Kind of like "Soren Lorenson" on "Charlie and Lola".

I don't worry about it, and I don't think you should either. Your child is just one of millions who have imaginary friends. It's perfectly normal.

 

[PrincessBelle39]

Both of my girls have imaginary friends.
DD5 refers to hers as her invisible kids. They are the ones that do everything naughty around here.
DD7 has had 3 imaginary friends at the same time. There names are Angelia, Spike and Cholula. I hadn't heard there names for a while now so I've just asked if they are still around. She told me yes but they are away on a trip to DisneyWorld at the moment.

 

[agnes!]

My DS4 has several imaginary friends. It is amusing, but sometimes creepy like the other morning when he was having a quiet conversation with one of his friends on the way to daycare. I mentioned my child's imaginary friends to a coworker and he said. "Do you know what that is?" I said "Don't say it's a ghost, cause that's creepy"? He said it's a sign of Schizophrenia. I told him my son has an active imagination, but it is bothersome that he said that because he knows my mother has the condition. I'm a little upset. Imaginary friends are common aren't they. Are there any links?

OP: As you have not probably noticed, once you have kids, people will tell you those most annoying, stupid and hurtful things! Having kids just opens up the floodgates of experts in your life.

I can well imagine how that comment set you back. But imaginary friends are very common. And not a sign up anything other than an active imagination.

I think your friend was very cruel, if he knows your mom suffers from this, he also knows all he has to do is mention that condition in context to your son to make you freak out. Nice. Real nice.

I had an imaginary friend. His name was Robert Phil. Robert Phil in my mind, looked like my cousin Jimmy. He and I had all sorts of adventures. He kept me company when my brother and sister were at school. Then one day, like most guys, he began to annoy me! So I told my family the sad news that Robet Phil had gotten wedged in the back seat of our 66 Mustang (there was this space between the seat and the side of the car and I once had a doll I think that got stuck in there so that is what must have given me this sinister idea) and had died. The best thing about imaginary friends is that when you get sick of them, they are easily removed from your life!

So not only did I have Schizophrenia, I also had the makings of a serial killer!

Ignore your co worker!

Some people just get off on making others feel bad. ...

What they said. If I were you, I'd consider re-thinking this 'relationship'. At the very least your co-worker is thoughtless (hitting you when you're down? UGH). Think *seriously* before you *ever* share anything of a personal nature with him ever again. And yes, I am *serious*. What an incredibly hurtful thing to say, and what a portent of this person's behavior & judgement. Do you ever even want to tell him anything about your life again? I mean, you're certainly not going to get affirmation out of this person's mouth, are you? He's made you feel ever WORSE than before because now you've needlessly worried about your wonderful, creative, fabulous son.

If your co-worker EVER brings it up, just tell him this...
"Oh, we consulted with some experts [as in US, the Dis ] and they've concluded that Johnny's imaginary friends are a sign of him possibly being a genius."

That should shut him the hell up.

I think that will be one of the major fallouts of this era. Too much Oprah is NOT always a good thing. Like Tiger Woods has a sex addiction. More likely, he got the idea from watching Oprah.

Your co-worker probably watched the same episode of Oprah as I did. It was about young children with Schizophrenia. Even though Schizophrenia is rare in kids, they said a lot of them have imaginary friends. But they did not mean that all kids who have imaginary friends have Schizophrenia!!! That would be ridiculous!!! I wouldnt worry about a thing!

But Oprah is the Queen of All Media! How can anything she has put on her show be wrong or bad or not good for the world?!?

Ding ding ding! This is exactly what we learned in Abnormal Psychology last semester. Schizophrenic hallucinations and delusions are not usually happy events and paranoia is usually part of the package. Imaginary friends don't usually cause kids distress.

My kids didn't have imaginary friends, they had imaginary monsters. I frequently had to kick them (the monsters) out of the house at night because they wouldn't behave and they kept "seeping" under the walls, going from room to room causing trouble. Wild imaginations!

Yeah, hallucinations are not a pleasant phenomenon.

agnes!

 

[Disney Doll]

I had an imaginary friend and I am not schizophrenic.

I think imaginary friends come and go in younger children's lives as they need them...maybe to help them through periods of uncertainly or change...if the friend is imaginary, they are always there to help you.

One of th funniest TV shows I ever saw was an episode of "The Nanny" with Fran Drescher where the youngest daughter Gracie "decides" she no longer needs her imaginary friend because she has her nanny now. They are in the kitchen making cookies, the nanny pops a cookie into her mouth and Gracie screams "You ate her!" and the ensuing scene of them trying to revive the imaginary friend is hilarious.

 

[Tinkmom75]

Thanks all for the support. A PP nailed it on the head stating that you get that inkling of a doubt when unpleasant things are said about your children and given the family history that's what happened to me. I am not worried about it, but it did give me a nagging feeling yesterday.

I agree that Schizophrenia usually comes with paranoia and unpleasant dillusions having seen it first hand. I do not wish to go into any more about that.

Also, thanks for all the funny stories. They are great and really cheered me up

 

[mickeylove2]

He's a moron! Don't let him worry you. I had imaginary friends as a child and would hold full blown conversations, changing my voice to sound different for his or her end of the conversation. It was so realistic that my grandmother would come over and while I was playing in my bedroom she would ask my mom who was in there with me and my mom would say no one she's just playing with her "friends" well my grandmom almost died because she swore that there were 2 or 3 people in there with me, it was just me changing my voice a few times!

Now, when my cousin was little she had an imaginary friend, Mr. Green Hands, and he would do things to her (pull her hair, pinch her, trip her), everyone just dismissed it no big deal right? Well she came downstairs 1 day and had bruises on her legs from Mr. Green Hands, and they were in the form of finger grips. Come to find out, an older cousin had lived there before and had an imaginary friend named Mr. Green Hands who pushed him down the stairs and broke his arm. The house was right next door to a cemetary.

Anyway- all 3 of us are very very normal, actually now that I think about it, we all have pretty high IQs, I have my AA going back soon (hopefully) for my BA, cousin who broke his arm got a full scholarship to college right out of hs, he's a sophomore now, and other cousin is a senior in hs.

 

[babyrich]

This might sound crazy but I had an imaginary enemy when I was about 4-5. My mother told me I used to fight with him all the time, his name was Charlie. One day I ran into the kitchen and told my mother I want her to throw Charlie out of the house. So she walked into the living room and yelled to Charlie to get out because I dont want to play anymore. I told her he said he wasnt leaving. At this point my mother got real scared. I said open the door and make him leave, so she opened the door and pointed outside and said Charlie, get out. I nodded my head and said, good, he left. I never spoke about him again after that.

I have no memory of this and my mom wondered if I was really seeing something.

Many year later, Robert DeNiro was in a movie where there was a killer named Charlie but it was his alter ego........ my sisters and I got a good laugh and chill from that.

 

[Crystal0608]

I had quite an imagination as a child. We had an armoire in my room and I used to pretend that you could climb through it and go to another land. When I first read Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe it became a favorite because of that lol. I also believed Smurfs lived in the ceiling of our house. I had conversations with most of my barbies and played pretend quite often. When I was 7 in the room visiting my grandma before she died (43-cancer), I saw the prettiest adult size fairy with blonde hair, a blue sparkly dress, wings, and a wand who was of course the toothfairy standing beside her bed and to this day I have have a picture of her in my head. I'm 30 now and I think I'm quite sane. I wish my kids had more of an imagination.

 

[SamRoc]

My son had 3 of them. We actually had a book printed when he was little and included these names in there. Thought it was perfectly harmless.

 

[Shmily1]

DS19 gave DGD16 an imaginary penguin when she was about 7. She drove her mom nuts walking around taking care of that penguin.... she kept it on an imaginary leash. Her mom had to bring her by our house and tell her she had to give it back to her uncle so she wouldn't have to take care of it anymore!! It was too funny!!! We know she was just doing it to driver her mom nuts!! She'll even admit it now!!

 

[LuvOrlando]

Hmm, I get that diagnosing a kid based on what Oprah had to say is a bad idea but that's not all that is going on here is it. The OP has a first degree relative diagnosed with Schizophrenia and that changes things. The co-worker said something mindless but the OP's concerns are valid because of her Mom, not Oprah. I wouldn't panic but considering your family history I wouldn't ignore it either.... there are some things you really should know with or without the imaginary friend.

I think it would be a good idea to do some research on Schizophrenia, how it looks in childhood, familial tendencies and the link with substance abuse. All this is funny to everyone except people who have seen what Schizophrenia does to a person and the family.