HollyD Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 ----- Okay, I am currently reading a GREAT book by James Patterson called Sunday's at Tiffany's. It is about a lonely little girl who's mother is a very sucessful New York City Playwriter. Needless to say she has an imaginary friend named 'Michael'. ------ So, it got me wondering about all of us. MFCers always have the best stories! I think it is a normal part of life to have an imaginary friend -- especially for children who are loney. I am not an only child, but I am an "UH-OH" that came many years later. By the time I was entering Kindergarten my brothers were grown and out of the house. So, it was always as if I were an only child - cause I was the only one in the home. *I had the BEST of both worlds* ************ so what is your story? *************************** I had an imaginary friend for about a year. And keeping in the tradition of my weird-ness-ess-ess mine was not human. My imaginary friend was a baby pegasus named: Blue Eyes. To this very day I still remember when we use to play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
findingmywords Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 Aww how adorable... I never had an imaginary friend... I don't think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mika-fan1001 Posted July 14, 2008 Share Posted July 14, 2008 i used to make up imaginary friends all the time! i have to ask my mom all the stats on them, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fmbm Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I never had one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKateisaKate Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I never had one. Should I feel inversely lonely for not having an imaginary friend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foalbaby14 Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 i had an imaginary friend for my whole childhood, but i guess i got over him:blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfreak Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I didn't make my first friend until I was in University, so I'm not embarrassed to admit that I relied on imaginary friends sometimes. I had imaginary friends until I was in 6th grade (10 years old.) I never talked about them because people would do things like ask if I was crazy or send me to psychiatrists to make sure that I wasn't broken in the brain. At least I had confirmation that I wasn't broken My brother is developmentally disabled, what they used to call "slow" or "retarded". His imaginary friend was Charlie Brown, but NOT the Charlie Brown from the comic strip and you better not confuse the two! At school, he was bullied so badly for having an imaginary friend that it broke my heart to be unable to protect him. He couldn't ignore his friend or pretend he was invisible, so he was constantly having outbursts when people would step on or sit on his friend. Adults just made the problem worse with their well-intentioned advice because they didn't have time to empathize. They kept telling my brother to grow up and give up the only friend he had. I was 11 years old, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I listened to my brother and I thought up a solution that would help him avoid bullying without having to hurt himself in order to do it. My brother wasn't crazy or stupid. He understood the difference between an imaginary friend and a real person. He just took the fantasy as far as any small child would because he was stilll a small child inside. First, I suggested that my brother imagine that his friend had super powers and wasn't hurt when people stepped or sat on him. He didn't need my brother's protection, so my brother stopped acting out when people didn't care about his friend. People still caught my brother talking to his imaginary friend and bullied him for that, so I suggested that he imagine his friend was telepathic and didn't need my brother to say things out loud. That worked like a charm. Unfortunately, my brother still talked about his imaginary friend, so he got bullied for that too. It took every ounce of my creativity to solve that one by convincing my brother to internalize his friend. I had to be very clear that he didn't have to give up his friend. He just had to give him a place to live inside his head so that his friend would still be with him, but wouldn't draw negative attention from the kids at school. He hated the idea, so I suggested he try it for one week and he could put things back the way they were if he still hated it. I never heard another word about my brother being bullied for having an imaginary friend. I guess he liked how it worked out. It was always his choice. I always told him the reasons I thought it would help and told him that he didn't have to try it if he didn't think it would work or if it was upsetting to him in any way. He didn't alwas understand what I meant, but talking to him like he did made him feel like I trusted him and had faith in him, so he trusted me. I was just being a big sister and doing my best to look out for him because he didn't have anybody else. Mom was working and dad was "too busy" for us. What happened to my imaginary friends? I gave it up when I got my first blank book and started writing. Before then, I was always stealing paper and notebooks for my stories, plays, and poems. Whenever we packed to move, mom would throw them away thinking that they were pointless scribbles. So, getting my first real book that was just mine to fill with whatever I wanted meant that it wouldn't be thrown away. I was excited about getting to be a REAL WRITER that I lost interest in my imaginary friends. I was too busy playing with words. Why did I have more than one imaginary friend? Because I loved animals and my imaginary friend was a dachsund who ended up having a litter of puppies. I think there were 5. The thought of being followed around by a litter of weiner dogs made me smile on days when I had nothing to smile about. It's the kind of thing that might make a good story someday that's such a sweet story! you sound like a great sister to have, and i'm glad you found such great ways to help your brother out:wink2: haha i never had an imaginary friend....i always had my two younger sisters around, they were and are my best friends:original: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OBSESSED_ily.mika Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 i had an imaginary friend.. her name was maria lol and i had relied on her when times went bad or when i was feeling upset... you just fall into that kind of thing...and its hard to get out... it became a habit of mine to talk to her alone...so i was usually secluded:shocked: creepy, yes. but it's the truth it all happened due to pre-teen bullying...i was a target at a new school i went to.. :/ but its all over. and i have mika now! lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtterFluff Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Haha, funny story. When i was in like first through third grade, i always had my best friend sean. But then we always had our imaginary friends too. haha. We both had pet animals that could talk and walk and interact. I always had my otter, oliver and sean always had his eagle, named baldy ((yeah, VERY creative. ))We'd spend hours on end just playing in our sandbox, talking with each other and our friends and each other's friend too. We always had to translate ((of course we did.)) but we'd always talk about our imaginary land ((yeah, we had one of those too. haha)) We used to live in our land were only we could survive unless we let othes in. It was a great time in my life. ((however unreal... although sometimes, it was the realest things i can remember from my childhood)) But then one day... sean and i were hanging out then... our friends just disappeared... It wasn't like we had a good bye or anything, waving them adios as they set off to another journey... they just kinda... faded away. lol ((how melodramatic. )) And then we went on with out lives. Like, sometimes he and i will bring them up fondly, like they were real and we'll talk about them. But its not creepy or anything. Its just like old friends reminiscing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riverstwilight Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 that's such a sweet story! you sound like a great sister to have, and i'm glad you found such great ways to help your brother out:wink2: Thank you He still likes me, so I think I did somthing right Of course, being the eldest of two, I can be quite bossy too. I used to make him let me practice my makeup on him because I didn't have a younger sister. He hated that, but he wants to be an actor, so I told him that actors have to wear makeup all the time. He hated it a little less after that Even the sweetest of siblings has a wicked streak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolliepop_girl Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Well I had some problems when I was younger. My visual imparement meant that I didn't really get to see people but I did actually SEE mine. The first one was from ages 2 till about 4, was the most vivid alhough I've had many more for many years after. Like when you see someone in front of you and you hear them talk. That's what happened and I said that they (genderless) were "imaginary" to keep the adults happy but I really believed that they were real. They were a person but I never saw their face and they stood behind me when I spoke to people and told me what to say and thought me about the world. They were lost because they decided it was time to go when my mother sat on them and they came less and less to me until they never did come thereafter. Funny though, my mother's bosses wife's mother (and the bosses wife) is a Medium (talk to people who have "passed over") and they both say that the man that I dream of (again, no face but a voice and stands behind me, I call him "the magician") is a spiritual guide. But that^^ is another story for another day EDIT: please don't look at me as if I'm crazy, childhood wasn't my favourite part of life and I grew up very fast. Mind you, in years, I'm still very young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfreak Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 oh wait...i take that back....well i didn't have imaginary friends i had imaginary enemies!! no joke they were these two guys one was really stupid and the other pretty smart...and they would follow me around the house always trying to scare me but somehow i would always defeat them by escaping in the nick of time! like for example i would go into the garage to get the dog food and they would be hiding under the car planning to catch me but just when they were running up to catch me i ran inside and slammed the door in their face:roftl:....maybe that is what has caused my constant fear and peranoia! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lolliepop_girl Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 oh wait...i take that back....well i didn't have imaginary friends i had imaginary enemies!! no joke they were these two guys one was really stupid and the other pretty smart...and they would follow me around the house always trying to scare me but somehow i would always defeat them by escaping in the nick of time! like for example i would go into the garage to get the dog food and they would be hiding under the car planning to catch me but just when they were running up to catch me i ran inside and slammed the door in their face:roftl:....maybe that is what has caused my constant fear and peranoia! Hah, I have heard of that! My imaginary friends would always tell me about their enemies but I only ever encountered one and that one told me to leave the room and go to where my family was at. That was the end for a while of one of my friends. It was funny because they were nice. Your enemies sound like the usual clown plot. The smart one who usually gets hurt the most, the dumb one who got the worst end of the stick but was never actually HURT and then (and this is the type of clown I play when we do clowning in drama) there is the "object" the one who the other two's plans are based around and yet also never gets hurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
englishrose Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I never had one set imaginary friend, but I was an only child up until 11 (sigh), so I made up companions to play with all the time. I was always very imaginative and rarely got bored; I was just content playing with my toys and whatever adventure I could invent for myself... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heineken22 Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 I had an imaginary friend named Clint until I was about.....6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lala_lollies44 Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Well, I had 2 imaginary friends named Jessica and Michael. They were kind of boring, but I also had imaginary teachers because we didn't have enough money for me to go to preschool, and I really wanted to go. My imaginary teachers were Mrs. Macaroni, Mr. Fudge, and Mrs. Pickle. One day, I saw on the news that a teacher was fired for doing drugs. I didn't really understand what that meant at the age of 3, so I said that the same thing happened to Mrs. Pickle and that she cried so hard that we needed a boat to get into the classroom. The imaginary people went away when I started kindergarten and realized that school was awful. haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicfreak Posted July 15, 2008 Share Posted July 15, 2008 Well, I had 2 imaginary friends named Jessica and Michael. They were kind of boring, but I also had imaginary teachers because we didn't have enough money for me to go to preschool, and I really wanted to go. My imaginary teachers were Mrs. Macaroni, Mr. Fudge, and Mrs. Pickle. One day, I saw on the news that a teacher was fired for doing drugs. I didn't really understand what that meant at the age of 3, so I said that the same thing happened to Mrs. Pickle and that she cried so hard that we needed a boat to get into the classroom. The imaginary people went away when I started kindergarten and realized that school was awful. haha !! i love the names of the teachers! i wish i had been so imaginative when i was a kid! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyD Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 I didn't make my first friend until I was in University, so I'm not embarrassed to admit that I relied on imaginary friends sometimes. I had imaginary friends until I was in 6th grade (10 years old.) I never talked about them because people would do things like ask if I was crazy or send me to psychiatrists to make sure that I wasn't broken in the brain. At least I had confirmation that I wasn't broken My brother is developmentally disabled, what they used to call "slow" or "retarded". His imaginary friend was Charlie Brown, but NOT the Charlie Brown from the comic strip and you better not confuse the two! At school, he was bullied so badly for having an imaginary friend that it broke my heart to be unable to protect him. He couldn't ignore his friend or pretend he was invisible, so he was constantly having outbursts when people would step on or sit on his friend. Adults just made the problem worse with their well-intentioned advice because they didn't have time to empathize. They kept telling my brother to grow up and give up the only friend he had. I was 11 years old, so I did the only thing I knew how to do. I listened to my brother and I thought up a solution that would help him avoid bullying without having to hurt himself in order to do it. My brother wasn't crazy or stupid. He understood the difference between an imaginary friend and a real person. He just took the fantasy as far as any small child would because he was stilll a small child inside. First, I suggested that my brother imagine that his friend had super powers and wasn't hurt when people stepped or sat on him. He didn't need my brother's protection, so my brother stopped acting out when people didn't care about his friend. People still caught my brother talking to his imaginary friend and bullied him for that, so I suggested that he imagine his friend was telepathic and didn't need my brother to say things out loud. That worked like a charm. Unfortunately, my brother still talked about his imaginary friend, so he got bullied for that too. It took every ounce of my creativity to solve that one by convincing my brother to internalize his friend. I had to be very clear that he didn't have to give up his friend. He just had to give him a place to live inside his head so that his friend would still be with him, but wouldn't draw negative attention from the kids at school. He hated the idea, so I suggested he try it for one week and he could put things back the way they were if he still hated it. I never heard another word about my brother being bullied for having an imaginary friend. I guess he liked how it worked out. It was always his choice. I always told him the reasons I thought it would help and told him that he didn't have to try it if he didn't think it would work or if it was upsetting to him in any way. He didn't alwas understand what I meant, but talking to him like he did made him feel like I trusted him and had faith in him, so he trusted me. I was just being a big sister and doing my best to look out for him because he didn't have anybody else. Mom was working and dad was "too busy" for us. What happened to my imaginary friends? I gave it up when I got my first blank book and started writing. Before then, I was always stealing paper and notebooks for my stories, plays, and poems. Whenever we packed to move, mom would throw them away thinking that they were pointless scribbles. So, getting my first real book that was just mine to fill with whatever I wanted meant that it wouldn't be thrown away. I was excited about getting to be a REAL WRITER that I lost interest in my imaginary friends. I was too busy playing with words. Why did I have more than one imaginary friend? Because I loved animals and my imaginary friend was a dachsund who ended up having a litter of puppies. I think there were 5. The thought of being followed around by a litter of weiner dogs made me smile on days when I had nothing to smile about. It's the kind of thing that might make a good story someday Wow! That was deep! ...awesome and sweet!!!!! Great story!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyD Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 I never had one freak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyD Posted July 15, 2008 Author Share Posted July 15, 2008 i had an imaginary friend for my whole childhood, but i guess i got over him:blink: What was his name? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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