Imaginary Friends...

[mcmommy]

My 3.5 yrs. dd has recently developed a crew of imaginary friends, well 2 main ones, 'Wendy' and 'Cathy'. She constantly talks about her friends and talks about visiting them etc. I am often unsure how to respond to her when she asks "Can I go to Wendy's birthday party?" Should I reinforce the idea that they are pretend, or act as if her friends are real people. I was completely stumped the day she insisted we go over to 'Wendy's house' and actually led me to a strangers. Anyone have suggestions?

[hahamommy]

Play along! Have fun! At our house we have *invisible* friends. It started about 2.5 for DS, who just turned 4. The number has grown. We have rules for these friends and I've even sent them away for a week because *they* cut Hayden's hair :LOL (this was our deal with *monsters* ever since DD was born ~ they are welcome in our house as long as they play nicely, otherwise they have to go home to thier own mommies!) It's worked and Gonzo, Dowdeed, Aaron, Stinky, Lala and others have really enriched our imaginations and our lives.
There was a recent thread about this with lots of advice... you should look it up for more support

[3girlsmom]

My 4 year old dd has her imaginary baby sister Katie. She is apparently tired of being the baby herself so we all play along.

[rainsmom]

I actually remember having an imaginary friend!

This might not ring true for some of you, but I was just reading a book about souls and the afterlife, and they were saying when children have imaginary friends it is actually their soul before it connects with them totally.

[Ackermama]

I understand the question here. My son has two imaginary friends (Ethan Stomp and Bicycle Tommy!) and I felt odd pretending they were real with him. At first it was fun, but then I saw Beautiful Mind and got freaked out like I was perpetuating something that was pathological. There were times when he'd cry because I shut the door on one's foot or whatever and I just wondered if it had gone too far. One day I semi-confronted my son on it and he got the drift that I was uncomfortable. His reponse: "It's okay Mama... You understand it is just pretend, right?" Duh. I felt stupid. Yes, he knew they were made-up. Good enough for me! So now we have a lot of fun with them and lo and behold, when we moved to another state, they did, too and WHAT A BLESSING THAT WAS!!!! They were the only people we knew.

Ackermama

[lucina3]

We don't have imaginary friends here.... but each of the girls has an imaginary PET. My oldest is the one whose has hung in the longest. It's been about 6 months that "Tito" has been around. And let me tell you, that is one irritating cat! Causes TONS of trouble apparently - luckily it's imaginary trouble. I would have to agree with hahamommy and say play along! It's great fun! Eventually the imaginary friends will disappear... usually replaced by real ones. I'm thinking this imaginary cat will be around until we get her a real one... which won't be any time soon since pets aren't allowed in the townhouse unit we live in!