Dawn has suggested this weeks post.
When I was a girl, I didn’t have an imaginary friend. I had an imaginary German shepherd dog
.
I always wanted to have a dog and got my love of this particular breed from my dad, who never managed to own one as we eventually had a Labrador instead.
When I was feeling low I would talk to my imaginary dog who was called Max, he would understand how I was feeling and he was really well trained in obedience. I even used to write on my notebooks I am going to get a German shepherd dog called Max and doodle pictures of him.
I did get my Max as an adult, unfortunately he became ill at only 15 months and I had to have him put to sleep. 18 months later I got a long coated German shepherd bitch that I named Keira, she was beautiful and lived for 9 years ( the average for this breed) however I suffered a stroke after only having her for a year, which has left me disabled it seems that I was never meant to enjoy . my precious dogs for long.
I used to look after a child when I was a child minder, he often talked about amazing adventures that he had with his friend, Hazelhog.
After a while I worked out that both Hazelhog and these adventures were a figment of his imagination.
When my youngest son was attending pre-school he would often tell the other children and teachers about his older brothers, a girl told him and myself when I was helping out as a rota mum that she had a baby brother.
A few weeks later I was chatting to her mum as we waited for our children to come out, I asked about this baby as I had never seen him, she told me that it was an imaginary baby brother that her daughter often talked about.
My daughter-in-law, who has an older brother told me that she had an imaginary sister when she was growing up.
Having an imaginary friend used to be thought that it meant a child was struggling with life and was troubled about something, experts now believe that this may not be the case and that imaginary friends are a positive thing that can help children develop their creativity, imagination and communication skills.
Please share any experiences of children’s imaginary friends.
As always comments, questions and topic suggestions are welcome.
Until next time.
Karen
x
I can’t remember ever having an imaginary friend but I do know that children get a lot of pleasure when they have one. Lovely blog Karen, good idea from your great friend Dawn .
Mine never had an imaginary friend but she had a whole past life that she would describe in scary detail when she was around four or so, complete with another family and a baby brother. Kinda freaked me out to be honest but its been several years now since she’s mentioned it #KCACOLS
I don’t think any of my kids had imaginary friends, however I still remember mine. I had two girl friends and they came in very handy when I didn’t want to do something and sent my imaginary friends instead! #GlobalBlogging
So sorry about the loss of your dogs. It is so tough to face. On the imaginary friends front, I had 7 sisters. I was in reality adopted with 2 adoptive brothers. Years later I found out that I had at least 5 birth sisters so who knows what was going on there? I could not have known as most are younger than myself. #AnythingGoes
mhm I remember that we all made up stories and friends as kids – I think it’s rather a creative thing (but then I’m probably not the best judge of myself) 😀 #globalblogging
My son had an imaginary friend called Alice – goodness knows where she came from. We used to set a place at the table for her, then she disappeared as quickly as she came. He had a sister 2 years younger so wasn’t a lonely child by any means. He’s now 48 and categorically denies it all!
As far as I am aware my children have never had imaginary friends, but I certainly did. I had a huge imagination and also often felt that no-one listened to me, so maybe my imaginary friends helped me feel less alone. #DreamTeam
Never experienced it myself but sounds amazing …. both for the comfort and for the imagination. I read recently about telly Supervet Noel Fitzpatrick and the importance of his family dog when he was going through a traumatic time in school over bullying. It fostered his interest in veterinary medicine! #ABloggingGoodTime
My boys are 5 and 2. I haven’t heard of an imaginary friend yet. I don’t remember having one and my mom never told me stories about having one. I don’t see anything wrong with it though. I think it is creative play for kids. I know that some find it as a negative. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time!
Didn’t really have any of this but a boy at daycare told me he was allergic to peanuts so we made all our birthday parties nut free, so years later when he was coming over to stay I told his mum to come and show me how the epi pen worked and she said they didn’t have one (and asked why they would??) and I mentioned the nut allergy (and was thinking ‘what crazy parents have a kid with a nut allergy and no epi pen!!’) and she burst out laughing and said ‘He doesn’t have an allergy, he just doesn’t like them!’. I then had to explain that the reason there was never any chocolate at our parties and he got a separate lolly bag (with the million dollar nut free chocolate) was because I didn’t get anything with traces of nuts, because of his allergy!
This has reminded me that my youngest used to say exactly the same for the same reason, thanks for sharing x
I don’t think I ever had an imaginary friend. I had brothers that kept me busy! #DreamTeam
Back again! Just popping back here to say thank you for sharing this with #ABloggingGoodTime
I never had an imaginary friend and neither has anyone I know! I was too busy keeping tack of my little sister… Thanks for linking up with #globalblogging
I have a 5 year old and 2 year old, at the moment they’ve not mentioned any friends they may have. From memory I think my niece had one for a short time but it stopped as quickly as it had started. #ThatFridayLinky
I don’t remember this but my mum tells me I had an imaginary friend called Mouse. She says he was a little boy and I used to take him around on a lead!! I hope she was wrong and he was a dog! haha #kcacols
Weirdly I don’t have any experience with this. I didn’t have imaginary friends when I was little and my boys didn’t either. I do think it’s a good thing though. 🙂
Thanks for sharing with #pocolo
I’m sure I had one, and so did my brother – and we were allowed to have them, almost encouraged by our parents. I used to lay them a place at the dinner table, no chairs, but cutlery – not quite sure what that was all about. Thanks for sharing with #PoCoLo
That’s so sweet that you had an imaginary dog. I didn’t have any friends, I just invented entire worlds. #kcacols
Thanks for linking up with #stayclassymama
I personally never had an imaginary friend, person or otherwise. My kids don’t seem to have any either but once is 3 and the other is 10 months old, so there’s still time. Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time