Hatrack River Forum: Imaginary Friends

This is topic Imaginary Friends in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

I know we recently spoke about this topic in one of the threads, but I can't remember which one..

so I'm starting new! [Wink]

There was an article in our paper today (originally from the Seattle paper, but picked up by ours) with good things to say about imaginary friends..

Research has found that children with imaginary friends tend to have higher verbal skills and more real friends

Farmgirl

Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :

I have never had an imaginary friend, so I cannot relate to the pros and cons. I did play superheroes a lot with my brother.

At first we were Superman and Spiderman, but we quickly made up our own. He settled into "Blackthorn," who was a ninja type character. I settled into "Man-O-War," who was 6ft, 200lbs (a giant to a 6 year old), and could manipulate objects by changing the gravitational pull on individual items--that is also how he awkwardly flew. *inspired by the energy lines in the Myth series I was reading--instead of pushing off the ground, I could change the gravitational pull of any thing to any given point*

Blackthorn had a bunch of ninja stars (he made out of paper) and Man-o-War had a whip that retracted to a black handle and could extend 50 ft.

Wow, I miss the days of walking around the house without touching the floor. I wonder how many times I tipped our bookshelf over.

*pauses* oops, sorry if this isn't related. [ROFL]

Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

According to my mother, I had two. Bullet was a horse and Brown Cow was a, well...a brown cow.

My oldest daughter, who is extremely gifted verbally and makes friends quite easily had one named Okie. He was a little boy about six inches high.

My second daughter didn't have any, and of the twins - Daniel had one and Abigail did not. Daniel's friend Gooey doesn't come around much anymore, once we made it clear that blaming things on him wouldn't get Daniel out of trouble.

Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :

Oh, but Abigail did like to pretend that she was somebody else. For example, if Daniel screamed "Abigail hit me!" she would respond "No I didn't! That was Mean Abigail. I'm Nice Abigail."

Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :

I think a kid having an imaginary friend is a sign that they are a budding writer.

Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :

quote:
Daniel's friend Gooey doesn't come around much anymore, once we made it clear that blaming things on him wouldn't get Daniel out of trouble.

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

I just asked my brother (6) if he's still friends with Little Michael and Big Michael. He says they're still friends, but he hasn't seen them in a while because they moved to New York City.

Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :

Alas-- I made up my only imaginary friend, "Chalkie," because my older brother had one named "Hershey," and I didn't want to be left out.

:tagalong:

Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :

I had stories and worlds but not imaginary friends.

[Dont Know]

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

I sometimes pretended to have an imaginary friend because I was jealous of those that did.

Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :

When I was three.........I had an imaginary friend named Henry..........he was a penguin...........and the first penguin to be a Ghostbuster............kinda pathetic isn't it???

Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :

Of those of you here who are male -- and who had imaginary friends -- how many of you had imaginary friends who were female? (don't answer if your friend was non-human, I'm only asking those who had human imaginary friends.)

FG

Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :

that was my other imaginary friend.............she was 2 ft 3 in.........and was named Bob..........how I found any of this out I don't know because as I remember she was an imaginary mute

Posted by aretee (Member # 1743) on :

I had 19 imaginary brothers and sisters. (I'm an only child) And, one of them drew on my coat rack with brown crayon! I was appalled.

Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :

I just always carried on conversations with my different personalities inside my head.

[Razz]

Well, seriously, I was always just carrying out fantasy scenarios in my head. I remember one thing I thought of frequently was what an alien race would think of us humans. I always tried to see things from a POV other than my own.

[ January 13, 2005, 03:26 PM: Message edited by: beverly ]

Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :

I had an imaginary friend named Body who lived in my head where it was dark. And she looked like me except prettier and she had black hair.

Body faded away after a while, though sometimes I can still feel her pull in my head. Then I had an imaginary friend named... Shoot. What was his name? And he was this guy with a green mohawk, skinny and he had size changing and shape changing powers. He might have been Nobody or Whatever, or something like that. Hah.

Body was there when I was really little, like five or six or seven, but the other guy... OH!! His name was Shut up!! HAHAH. I was such a weird kid. He hung around between when I was twelve or so and when I was.. Mmm... Probably fourteen.

Posted by Annie (Member # 295) on :

Hmmm... all my siblings' imaginary friends were of their same genders.

quote:
Well, seriously, I was always just carrying out fantasy scenarios in my head. I remember one thing I thought of frequently was what an alien race would think of us humans. I always tried to see things from a POV other than my own.

That's funny Bev - so did I. Actually, I remember developing a scenario when I was 10 or 11 in which I was really the only person on earth, and everyone else was just a holodeck-like projection there for the sole purpose of convincing me that the earth was real. Once I stopped looking at them, they stopped existing. I tried to explain this to my friend once.
"Well, if I'm not real, howcome I can talk to you even when you can't see me?"
"Easy," I explained. "Your voice is fake too, but you still have to keep it up to convince me you're really there."
"Well, what about people in other countries that you never meet?"
"They don't exist until I meet them. Then, when they leave, they stop existing."

Maybe this is why I was so unpopular in junior high. *ponders*

Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :

quote:
Oh, but Abigail did like to pretend that she was somebody else. For example, if Daniel screamed "Abigail hit me!" she would respond "No I didn't! That was Mean Abigail. I'm Nice Abigail."

Belle, I used to do the same thing. My mom would ask something like, "Did you hit your brother?" My response was, "No, that was Ann without an 'e'. I'm Anne with an 'e'!" [Big Grin]