BB has a group of imaginary friends, they first appeared about six months ago, just in time to join us for our holidays, and they show no sign of leaving anytime soon. Much of the time it is quite sweet, she plays in her room chatting merrily to them all, sharing her toys and sending them to the naughty corner if they get too raucous. At other times they can be a real pain in the backside, namely when we are hurtling out of the door, late for pre school and school and BB insists that all three are strapped in to ensure they don’t go through the window when ‘mummy does scary driving’.
And there was the time when BB stayed in the north with my mum for a few days. She stupidly left the three of them at nanny’s house instead of bringing them home. The tears continued for three days until she one day emerged smiling, telling me she had just seen the three of them jump off the bus and they were waiting at the door to come in.
It is like having six kids, I fasten BB’s shoes, then each of her three invisible, completely fictional friends. At one point I was feeding them all as well, until I managed to convince BB that because they were pretend then they should eat pretend food. So now, while I knock up a healthy beans on toast for my pre schooler, she whips up a play doh feast for her little pals.
Yesterday, BB brought her friends to collect the twins from school.
We were early, which is a rare occurrence, and I lifted BB from the car and bumped the door shut with my backside. This caused my daughter to started emit a loud, wailing noise on behalf of her imaginary girl friend. I had closed the door on her fingers, so I spent two minutes apologising to no one and rubbing thin air, which didn’t look strange to the other mothers, at all.
Finally we made it to the playground and BB spotted a leftover skipping rope and squeaked with delight.
‘Look,’ she told her trio, ‘we can skip,’ and she pointed to imaginary friend number one and said, ‘Ellie, you can turn the rope with Mummy.’
Have you ever tried turning a skipping rope with a fictional being? It is exactly like you would imagine, and BB got very frustrated with Ellie for not pulling her weight. Another mother smiled in amusement and I mouthed ‘imaginary friend’ and heard her sigh with the cuteness of it all.
BB took the rope, and spoke to imaginary friend number two, ‘c’mon Emma, you jump, Ellie go play.’
We swung the rope happily whilst imaginary Emma jumped forward and back, the other mother beamed, but I began to worry, because if Emma and Ellie were here, that meant the third imaginary pal wouldn’t be far behind, waiting to put in an appearance.
I wasn’t wrong.
Three twirls of the rope later and BB ordered Emma to go play with Ellie, and then she summoned her loudest calling voice to gain the interest of imaginary friend number three, who was apparently frolicking at the other side of the playground.
‘Michael Jackson, oh Michael Jackson, it is your turn to skip.’
Yes, my daughter’s third imaginary friend is named after a dead pop singer who was rumoured to have odd relations with young children. The other mother stopped beaming at the cuteness of it all and starting choking back laughter at the deep rooted strangeness of it all
If you are wondering, BB tells me that Michael Jackson is an excellent skipper, I wouldn’t have expected anything different with those dancing feet, would you?
Amazing!!! I just had to explain what was going on to my workmate and email her this link as I laughed out loud so loudly….!!
(I’m also quite relieved as H’s imaginary friends have names which aren’t anyone famous, phew!)
Ha thanks
Very cute : ) also a little embarrassing! but mostly extremely funny – still grinning. x
enjoy x
Ahhh how cute but ooooooh so annoying 🙂
Can’t get the image of a skipping Micheal Jackson out of my head now!
Sorry!
Hahahaha! This is amazing!
why thanks
Oh what an amazing imagination your daughter must have, and how cute! I can imagine it becoming really difficult though looking after three imaginary friends (Especially one being the king of pop). My Youngest was so heavily into teddy bears, he was offered a job at build a bear workshop. At first I thought this was cute when he was 6, however he is now 11 years old and still believes that he is guaranteed a job there when he leaves school ha.
The whole story put a great big smile on my face today, so thank you for sharing. I hope you do share more stories in relation to the imaginary friends antics and their going on’s.
depends what micheal does next…..
Oh I LOVE her! I miss her! Gorgeous girl. Frog’s imaginary friend (John Jelly Moo) hasn’t made it to Devon. I rather miss him actually.
Pick him up when you come over?
Made me smile as ever Jane! I think I put my mother through the same with two imaginary friends as well, they were very real to me and also used very conveniently to get my way, I can still remember positioning everyone round the dinner table and insisting the place I choose being left spare for my “friends”.
Ha! Libs does the same
what is it with 3’s. We have 3 imaginary friends here, I have to commentate on races between the 4 of them. I am often told off for not being loud enough. They only every ‘appear’ outside of the house.
I am never told off for not being loud enough
I was going to say I miss Kittys imaginary elf friend, Nimpon Pimpon who was as tall as a finger and had pink hair but I don’t. On a holiday at Center Parcs I had to make sure Nimpon Pimpon was strapped in one bike rides and had his own drink at all times. Not to mention the time Kitty woke the house drying at 5am because she realised that Nimpon Pimpon was ‘shut in the freezer’ OBVIOUSLY. Hard ruddy work!
That!
Oh my, you do make me laugh.. well in this case your daughter!! Brilliant. So glad we don’t have any imaginary friends. (though we do have Mummy Bunny and all hell breaketh loose if we forget her….)
Yeah we have a Nellie like that.
LOL none of mine have had imaginary friends. I bet you are just glad they aren’t interested in boys yet – could you imagine!
*closes ears*
I didn’t have this with my boy, which is surprising as he is an only child – it’s a wonder we didn’t have a whole squad of them.
So pleased Michael Jackson is a good mover!
xxx
Oh this is brilliant and I have it all to come I imagine. It always fascinates me the length that children’s imaginations can go to!
It makes my mind boggle
I LOVE the fact that she has named one Michael Jackson!! My two both had imaginary friends. One lot left to go on holiday and never returned, and the other lot died in a car crash after a trip to the cinema apparently… All very very sad. And actually I am quite sad about it because those imaginary friends could be quite useful at times, like when I accidentally broke a toy, forgot to bring something, made the wrong dinner etc. They all got the blame! 😀 Perhaps that’s why they left though…
Yes, Ellie is the unruly one in this house x
My son also had imaginary friends… one day he sat at the table and announced ‘He knows you can’t see him you know’. Very freaky. They disappeared when he started school. Michael Jackson hmmm…
odd…..
I’ve always wondered about imaginary friends, I never had one and none of my children have had one wither but I think they’re really fascinating and Michael Jackson – well, who can beat that?
Brilliant post, thanks for the laughs and giggles 🙂
…actually I might make up my own imaginary friend …..
but what would you call them?
Oh my that is funny. We’re yet to get to the imaginary friend stage and I’m slightly worried about it all. LMC’s imagination is wild enough as it is. Adding someone else to the mix might just push me over the edge!
Gin helps
Oh that is just brilliant! What a character she is.
Thanks x x x
it must be frustrating with the imaginary friends but the MJ one is cool. Maybe you should put her some videos to watch with the real MJ. Wonder what she will say then