kclark wrote:
I can't remember ever having an imaginary friend. I do know that I talked to things, but it was more of talking to myself.
I can recall playing pretend and make believe. Mostly we played house, school, and store. Yeah I am strange, I did actual homework for fun out of old schoolbooks. I also remember playing lava. It was a game where you couldn't touch the floor or you would burn up in the lava. So we would jump around on the couch and chair to cross the room. I also remember getting upset playing cops and robbers because I felt the others were cheating by not dying when they got shot. I guess even then I needed structured rules to play.
My son is a lot like that, and I was as well when I was younger. I watch my son play with the neighbor kids, and it seems like it is a task for him rather than anything enjoyable, but he really does enjoy it for some reason. He is ALWAYS coming to me to tell me what they are doing, and how they aren't following the rules, I have to remind him a lot that they have their own imaginations as well, and that it's okay if they don't always follow the rules. But he does have a LOT of imaginary friends-2 days ago he discovered a new coping skill when upset-he curled into a ball and rocked back and forth, counted to 100 and said the ABC's a few times. Afterwards, he shared this with me, very excited that he calmed hisself down and didn't need me to hold him to do it, and then he informed me that we have 100 imaginary friends now (all numbers, lol), and I will be needing to make 100 imaginary plates for dinner every night