Imaginary Friends?

Question

At what age does this normally start happening?


(My son will be 3 in February & already has one. It seems a little early but he does have a very vivid imagination.)

My son loves to pretend he's a dog also. He is an only child (for a couple more months) but has very strong social skills. His imaginary friend is a monkey & my son loves to "read" to him.

I'm not giving thumbs down : )

Answer 1

'My son is 31 mos old and has an imaginary bunny named Thumper since the summer ended. It's great, when my daughter gets her real bunny out, he'll putter around tending to his. Imagination is a great thing and a good sign!! We've recently just given him a real bunny which he of course named Thumper and since then, it's stopped. I kinda miss his imaginary one lol!

Answer 2

Must be the age - my almost-3 year old grandson has a vivid imagination also. He doesn't have an imaginary friend yet, but he likes to pretend he's a dog - he barks, chases his "tail", scratches his ears with his "paw" - the whole nine yards. He is an only child and our dog is his "best friend", so of course he loves him & plays with him all day. It's embarrassing when we're in public and he barks at people though! haha! I just say "no, doggy - that's not nice" and he stops - I get the weirdest looks, but you know what? An imagination is a GOOD THING for children to have, and he'll never be bored! Kids who don't know how to entertain themselves are a lot harder to deal with, believe me. (And before anyone comments, yes he does go to preschool and has "human" playmates as well!)

Edit: I am LOL at the other stories on here - they're toooo cute!! (and yes, apparently I have a troll that is following me and thumbing down all my posts ((((shrug))))

Answer 3

I have 4 children, 2 of whom had imaginary friends. Both were 2 years old when their friends came to stay for awhile. My middle daughter just had one friend, Monica. Not long after Monica became a regular household member, my daughter came into the room I was in one day and I kept looking at her because something seemed so different about her face. Eventually, I realized that one of her eyebrows was completely gone! I asked her what happened to her eyebrow and without missing a beat, said, "Monica pushed me down a hill and it fell off." We found out what really happened was she figured out how to climb up into the bathtub and get my razor down from the shelf. How she managed to reach it we never did figure out nor could we figure out how she shaved the whole thing off leaving not a trace of hair and managed not to cut herself. When my daughter was about 5, Monica moved away to California. My youngest daughter had her "sons". There were 3, Michael, John, and Drew. They didn't seem to cause as much mischief as Monica did, but she had some pretty wild stories about their adventures. She was about 5 also when Michael, John, and Drew simply didn't live with us anymore. My brother was not quite 3 when Timmy came to live with us. He is very intelligent and is now a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force (my brother, not Timmy!). My 2 daughters with the imaginary friends are both very creative people. I think 2-3 is a pretty normal age for imaginary friends to show up. ADDED: Just like the previous poster, my youngest daughter (who had her "sons") also loved to pretend to be a dog. She'd go so far as to unclasp my purse handle and use it as a "leash" whenever we went grocery shopping. She's 10 now and perfectly social, but she was like an only child since her siblings are so much older than she is. She entertained herself delightfully as a baby and toddler and now writes very imaginative stories.

Answer 4

Three is not too early to have imaginary friends. It simply means that he is very creative and enjoys role playing. I remember my mother telling me that when I had just turned three I had a friend that I called Jello that followed me everywhere.

Answer 5

My son was about 3 when his "friends" started coming over. Though he didn't just have one... he had an entire zoo. They would all come over and I would have to say hello to each and every one. He would walk to our back door, pretend to open it, let his friend in , and then come to me and say "Mom, say hi to (insert animal here). Very cute.

Answer 6

i had one since i could remeber....casper..lovely times then came d.w didn't last long thoguh lol....i got rid of them at the age of about......7-11

Answer 7

My girls had them around 2 or three so he is okay..
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