Tell us your stories of imaginary friends and win Moone Boy goodies!

My son had three imaginary dogs called Dominum, Forth and Ski. They were often with us when we went somewhere and he would be heard talking to them on walks or throwing them invisible sticks, but the rest of us weren't really allowed to ask about them - they were private.

My brother who is fifty this year, he had an imaginary friend called Jimmy, we had to be so careful as kids were we sat, just in case we squashed Jimmy. I can remember my brother and Jimmy dancing to Magic Moments..... my brother with his thumb firmly in his mouth his fist covering his nose..... no doubt Jimmy was doing the same..... not sure when Jimmy left , I doubt even if my brother can remember him.

After my beloved grandfather died when I was 3, I developed a close relationship with an imaginary little girl called Leebee. She came everywhere with me. One day my aunt took me (and Leebee of course) shopping in a large department store. In those days, as you all will remember, lifts had 2 doors, controlled by a lift operator. We entered the lift, with several other passengers. The lift operator closed the doors and began to check with passengers which floors they wanted. Suddenly, I let out a terrible scream. Leebee had been left outside the lift. Concerned, the lift operator opened up the doors and began to search for the child left outside. My mortified aunt had to explain to her and the other passengers that Leebee was an imaginary child. However, I insisted on leaving the lift, taking L by the hand and leading her in.

When I was 6, after a lovely sunny day at the beach, I was convinced that L. would be much happier living there in the sun. I said goodbye to her and she never returned. I live a few miles from that beach now and sometimes wonder if Leebee is still wandering around there in the sun circa 1956!

Not exactly friends, but I had imaginary horses that I rode to the shop when I ran errands for my mum. Drew them in a book and had to decide each day which one I would ride [got the idea from National Velvet]. Arabian Night was one, but I can't remember the names of the others.

Phoenix I have noticed that when I comment on a subject you auto post and say something negative about my comment. Please do let me know if I have done something to upset you smile

I'm not sure whether my DD1 had an imaginary friend or whether this was some sort of spooky occurrence, but when she was a babe in arms she would suddenly smile broadly, fix her eyes on a corner of the room, point and say "Esta". We never knew whether this was the name Esther or an attempt to say "It's there". It used to make the hairs on my arm stand on end, but whatever or whoever it was made DD1 very happy!

My youngest son had an imaginary friend for several years.

He was a chimney sweep (the imaginary friend not my son lol). He was 9 years old and DS could describe every bit of him. He would tell us every night about his friend who had to go up chimneys. He even had a name..... Wardy.

My son would set his friend a place at the table, we took him on day trips and to family gatherings and all the while DS would be chatting away to his "friend" He even made his Dad leave a seat for his friend in the car!!

Fast forward 17 years and my son has outgrown his imaginary friend and has met the love of his life. Th relationship becomes serious and the time comes to meet the other set of parents. My DS assures us we'll get on well with them. We meet them for the first time and its lovely. It's comfortable and we're all getting along and right in the middle of the first meeting my DSs now mother in law asks her husband to get a drink and says "Wardy pour a drink" Turns out my daughter in laws father (whose real name is Alex) hated his name so much and so chose an alternative and everyone calls him Wardy!!!

My dear Mum said it was a good sign and I like to think she was right. 8 years and 3 kids later we're all just one big happy family.

My imaginary friends were called Bibby and Gorgy and lived at the bottom of the garden opposite, never came to my home though!

I had a succession of imaginary friends, all of them boys. Partly this was because I lived in a an entirely female household. It was wartime, my DF was away in the army and my aunt and grandmother lived with my DM, my younger DS and myself.

I was also a tomboy, physically very active and wanting to be able to play all the boisterous games and activities that boys were allowed to do but girls were discouraged from doing. Having an imaginary boy playmate allowed me to do this. Later on when my DF returned he kept being sent to relatively isolated postings where none of the few other children living on site were the same age is DS and I, so we used to play a lot of role playing games that required extra imaginary characters, again most of them boys.

It has been interesting to watch DGD. She never had imaginary friends but all her pre-school play was role-playing characters in books or in programmes she saw on television. The first was All Creatures Great and Small. She was Helen and she would recreate and talk to all the other characters in the series and play out her favourite episodes constantly. She then moved on to The Railway Children and at least another six or seven characters. Not exactly imaginary friends, but very close.

parcs firstly, I do NOT comment on every post you make, and I have never even heard of "auto post" let alone used it! As for saying that all my posts are saying something negative, please do give an example (other than what I said on the Imaginary Friends thread, and actually I don't think my post was particularly negative, rather commenting that your post was very CYNICAL)

No Parcs you haven't done anything to upset me, other than insult my intelligence, but I can live with that!

Sorry all, just to explain, Parcs seems to be a tad upset, and is posting things on here when they might be better posted elsewhere/on other threads. HTH

to all!

Any writer is welcome to use/build on my story. All of us live lives that are full of narrative, and online forums are made up of them. Once we share on social media, our narratives become public property anyway!

Do children still do role playing games these days?I'd forgotten all of the times we'dre enact tv programmes or films in the playground and I used to lie in bed at night imagining myself to be various characters from books I'd read.

I inherited two imaginary friends from my sister, Ruth, who was five years older than me. It never occurred to me to question the existence of Alice and Mary but I probably envisaged them a little differently than Ruth did. I remember this as a fairly short period when I must have been three or four, when Ruth would play with me, and the play always involved Alice and Mary and our dolls. I saw the pair as like my Mum but more fun and with better clothes! I think I carried on playing with Alice and Mary for a year or so after Ruth had left them (and me and my childish doll games) behind.

So which of my imaginary friends shall I concentrate on? There were of course the horses, my friend and I arrived at school on our mounts, tied them to the wooden stakes of the fence and came out at play time to excersise them, by which time the field had become our ranch where we trotted happily around until the whistle blew. On the darker side my friend and I knew that aliens were occupying the world and had hypnotised most of the adults. We were waging a lone fight against them (usually on the way home from school). They moved through the sewers underground but could slip through walls when they needed to. They were large and silver with a single red eye. (I suppose they weren't really friends!). When I woke up screaming one night because one of these creatures had come through my bedroom wall my mother insisted I stop playing with this friend because she was a bad influence. But I think it was 50/50 we sparked each others imagination.

I had an imaginary dog. He was a Labrador puppy and I used to pretend I was holding his lead whenever I was out and about! X

cangran - as an only child I was fascinated by the story of you taking on your sisters' imaginary friends. I've heard of handing down clothes, but imaginary friends? it did make me smile. I wonder if I'd had a sister if she would have taken on my five pretend children. At least when I'd given up on them I would have known they went to a good home

How wonderful to read all the stories of imaginary friends, I was about 6years old when I met Joan, another little girl, she did actually tell me her name, she was always waiting at the top of my stairs...I didn't realise that only I could see her. When my mother was angry with me and shouted at me I always ran up the stairs to be with Joan and she would talk to me and make me laugh....I would get home from school and tell her all about my day and about my school friends, I enjoyed this so much....we used to meet in the bedroom and I would show her my dolls and toys...I vaguely recall my mother telling me not to be so silly....this I didn't understand, what was silly, my friend was there for all to see....around about 7yrs old I can clearly remember hurrying home from school because I had a lot to tell my friend Joan about a birthday party I had been invited to..i looked in the bedroom and she wasn't there, I looked in the other bedrooms and no one..i even called her name, but she didn't come I sat on my bed and cried so much.I never saw her again...but it is still so clear now in my mind..... there is a theory that children do see spiritual beings, but once our mind is conditioned to the things around us, we loose ability to see. who really knows..

My youngest had an imaginary friend called Pea Man. He told us that he was covered head to toe in peas. Around that time he had a strong enthusiasm for having peas with his dinner too. We couldn't have a meal without them. After a while Pea Man became responsible for some nightmares however and we don't have peas for tea so often now.

Parcs have you done an Elvis?

I had an imaginary friend called Tracey who always owned up to the bad things I would do- "Tracey did it!" . Needless to say she wasn't a popular girl!

I had an imaginary friend called Buster who would get me into so much trouble as a young girl! Once, my primary school was closed for the morning because the pipes had burst, and two friends and I decided not to go back for the afternoon. We didn't have much to do, so we ended up hanging out in my parents' back garden because they were out at work. But my mum came home early and caught us. I tried to blame Buster for persuading me to skip school, but she still grounded me and sent me to bed (at about 2.30pm!) with no supper!!

Buster was a naughty little boy indeed. ;)

I never had an imaginary friend but my daughter had one called Roert