Wednesday, August 01, 2007

P's New Friend

For the last few days, P has been telling me about his friend, Beba. Although I cannot see her, I am told she has red hair and wears big glasses. He also informed me yesterday that "she is a big girl, even bigger than you, Mommy." She likes pizza. This morning, P told me he dreamed about her.

P has long been the best of the trio at independent play. It appears this is just another example of his budding imagination at work. I am playing along, although it is surprising to me that a little guy with 2 built-in, same age playmates wants to invite another one to join in. I had always assumed imaginary friends were a product of loneliness.

I did a bit of reading on imaginary friends this morning, just to better understand the psychology behind it all. I did not realize 66% of kids have imaginary playmates at some point. It appears a lot of children use the friends as a place to place blame when they are up to mischief. So far, that has not happened. So Beba, you are welcome around here as long as you stay out of trouble!

5 comments:

Big Mama said...

At our house we have Baby. Baby goes with us everywhere we go and she likes to eat alot of candy, which is why Caroline is always asking for more candy. Apparently, Baby eats it all.

Beth/Mom2TwoVikings said...

Hmmm... don't know if this qualifies asthe samething or not but Flicka told me yesterday that Jesus had called and told her to meet Him in a town 2 hours from here.

Now, first, that town is where DaHubby and I first met and where he recently took a canoe trip...but STILL! Can't believe she'd remember that. And, secondly, I'm on the fence about addressing Jesus calling her on her "cell phone". *snort*

I can hear it now..."yes, baby, Jesus CAN speak with you but he generally doesn't use a cell phone..." LOL

Renee said...

We've had imaginary friends (mostly animals) that would go everywhere and intrude our home constantly. We finally had to say that they stayed outside and were not allowed in the house or in the car. Worked pretty well and saved our sanity. I agree with you though. With 4 built in playmates, what's the need for an imaginary friend?

Lori said...

My son had a "brother" named Kevin. Kevin moved every where we did until one day my son said, "Dad is true, Kevin isn't real." and that was the last I heard of Kevin. I've always been told it was a sign of high intelligence. My mother had a whole imaginary family when she was about 5. I've found they come and go when they are supposed to. Oh, and my son never blamed anything on "Kevin".

Tara D. said...

Our child does the "getting in trouble" thing with her stuffed animals. They end up doing things we've specifically asked/told him/her (our child) not to do. We realized this was a way for her to test the limits of our parenting...i.e. "What will happen to the stuffed animal if he continues disobeying and doesn't shape up?"...in an effort to find out what would happen to her if she did the same thing. Fascinating, isn't it. :-)

Unfortunately, there is one stuffed animal around our house I would have liked to have given the boot SEVERAL TIMES, but I don't want my child to think I'd do the same with him/her. :-)

At one point...that stuffed animal disobeyed so much that I told him/her that if he didn't shape up, we would need to take him to talk to a "doctor" to figure out what was causing such disobedience. I didn't tell her I meant a psychiatrist! I just said a "doctor".

Gotta love being a parent! :-)