| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| apl4eris |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:21:32
A snippet (from Harper's) from a study of 6 & 7 year olds and their "...Imaginary Companions, Impersonation, and Social Understanding".:
"Skateboard Guy: Invisible eleven-year-old boy who lives in child's pocket, wears cool shirts and has a fancy skateboard, can do lots of tricks on his skateboard, likes to see how fast child can run.
Rose: Invisible female squirrel, nine years old, brown fur and hazel eyes, lives in a tree in the yard, sleeps in her imaginary house
Simpy: Invisible eight-year-old girl, blue skin and black eyes, three feet tall, wears funny clothes.
Sergeant Savage: G.I. Joe doll who is sometimes an invisible person, 100 years old, Band-Aid on forehead, wears boxer gloves, hair is white-brown, wears pilot jacket. Child likes his shotgun, dislikes his face.
Alicia: Invisible eight-year-old female dog, two inches tall, green fur and blue eyes, lives under child's bed. Child likes Alicia's good sense of humor but doesn't like that no one can see her.
Elephant: Invisible five-year-old female elephant, seven inches tall, gray color, black eyes, wears tank top and shorts. Child likes that she plays with child, dislikes that sometimes she is mean.
Michael: Invisible nine-year-old boy, taller than child, short brown hair, brown eyes, wears red shirt and jeans, lives in back-left side of child's head, sleeps in bed in child's head."
The statistics, if one is to pay them any mind, are that about 65% of children have imaginary companions. I don't remember having one, nor does SpudBoy, and we both feel like we had active imaginations.
Did you have an imaginary friend? How about your kids now? Know anyone that did? Some of these descriptions are unsettling - I almost wonder if there is more to them than just an active imagination.
Lon the Fisherman has wooden legs, but real feet. |
| 35 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| VoVat |
Posted - 01/29/2005 : 12:09:45
I've been all around this crummy world, and no one will defend the comfort found in imaginary friends.
"Reunion? Shit union!" |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 11:47:20
as far as calvin and hobbes is concerned when I first started reading them it broke my heart every frame there was someone else with them and hobbes was just a stuffed tiger
it actually pained me
you
me
we used to be on fire |
| Newo |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 11:18:05
Re: metaphysics, what I´m saying is perhaps a words that reflects that something instead of nothing. My vote is schmoogly.
--
You know the man you hate? you look more like him every day. |
| KimStanleyRobinson |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:07:18
I've never had real friends.
I've never had imaginary friends.
I've never had any friends out of the blue.
Wo-o-oah. |
| offerw |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:00:13
I have four sisters but still had an imaginary friend. Nothing to do with being lonely, just living in a fantasy world too much. My mother slammed my friend's fingers in the car door once. I hated her for a few days because she didn't rush us to emergencies. My friend left for a more caring family shortly thereafter.
wilhelm |
| Monsieur |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 08:49:39
Metaphysics: why is there something instead of nothing?
I used to have an imaginary friend until I was 4 or 5. He was a boy pretty much like me and lived in the chimney. My father used to tell me "I saw your friend this morning" my reply was always "you can't see him".
It's funny that so many kids have imaginary friends. I was alone quite often when I was younger (no brothers or sisters and my parents worked alot) so I developed a very strong imaginary world. Some of it subsists today - I have troubles with concentration because I am often daydreaming.
My two best friends were Arnold and Willis.
I will show you fear in a handful of dust |
| Cheeseman1000 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 07:08:39
I was using fancy words, whaddya gonna do? I consider Hobbes' relationship to Calvin to be whatever the reader takes it to be.
"What sounds to you like a big load of trashy noise, is in fact the brilliant music of a genius" |
| Newo |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 07:05:26
Metaphysics is a pretty useless term, lit. beyond physics, that´s more describing what it´s not than what it is. Then again perhaps you´re right, maybe his parents and teachers could have been the imaginary ones.
--
You know the man you hate? you look more like him every day. |
| Cheeseman1000 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 06:57:36
C'mon man, the question of the physical or metaphysical existence of Hobbes is one that can't be analysed or categorised under a simple heading like 'imaginary friends'
"What sounds to you like a big load of trashy noise, is in fact the brilliant music of a genius" |
| Newo |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 06:44:40
--
You know the man you hate? you look more like him every day. |
| Newo |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 06:40:00
I didn´t have any when I was a kid but these days part of my livingearning is writing so I have thousands now.
--
You know the man you hate? you look more like him every day. |
| GypsyDeath |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 06:16:00
I never realluy had imaginary friends. I was an only too, but i used to write a lot - a lot fo storiees, which often had the same lead charaters, sort of a series of stories. so they were kind of like imaginary friends, because i used to write everyday, and i started dropping them in to conversation, when someone said something that i knew was something charater X would say...that kinda thing.
I also had different personalities. Which i still do have. I would wake up and decide who i was going to be today. i had a whole list of characteristics for each one, which i acted like on particular days.
I still have multiple personalities i think - they just dont have names now.
 |
| hickster9 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 05:37:22
quote:
Originally posted by Little Black Francis
quote:
Originally posted by hickster9
I used to play football in the backyard--I was all of the players at once--throwing the ball high in the air, running under it for a completion and then mauling myself with a brutal hit from the cornerback. After I got up, I would voice "the crowd". Pretty standard stuff really.
Steve
Yeah, that was me too, except I would launch the ball onto the roof lenghtwise and run to the other end and try to catch it. And I kept score, it was never easy to let the opponent win, subconsciously I could not let that happen.
Ohmigod! I played "Football on the Roof" too! I had a front yard with a roof over the porch (at first floor level) and then another roof over the 2nd floor/attic. I would throw a Nerf onto the top roof, and it would roll down and fall to the lower roof and bound off in wild directions...at which point I would dive to catch it. If I caught it a few times, it was a touchdown. Then I lined up for an extra point (between the shutters). I had all the rules written down and a league of teams and all. I even went so far as to devise how I could create a real sport out of it. Should we see if ownership groups are interested in franchises, for say half a million?
But I suppose we are digressing from the original topic (sorry!)...I just HAD to respond!
I like cows, they go moo when they eat |
| Homers_pet_monkey |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 15:39:29
That is a lovely picture Rita, that bear looks adorable.
It made me sad to read about Kurt Cobain's imaginary friend. I find them quite sad anyway (as in upsetting, not pathetic), but especially when they concern a suicide victim who had an unhappy childhood.
Love, love, my season |
| darwin |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 15:33:27
I spent hours on my front lawn playing baseball with my Hank Aaron pitchback (basically a trampoline turned vertically so a thrown ball can bounce off of it. I would play games with me pitching and then fielding the ball running around tagging out imaginary base runners. |
| ObfuscateByWill |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 14:50:16
I played with my GI Joe's quite a bit. Never had them interact with me, though.
-
Never had any imaginary friends. Neither of my kids seem to have any need of them.
 Take a bite of the chocolate coffin. |
| Little Black Francis |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 13:57:27
quote:
Originally posted by hickster9
I used to play football in the backyard--I was all of the players at once--throwing the ball high in the air, running under it for a completion and then mauling myself with a brutal hit from the cornerback. After I got up, I would voice "the crowd". Pretty standard stuff really.
Steve
Yeah, that was me too, except I would launch the ball onto the roof lenghtwise and run to the other end and try to catch it. And I kept score, it was never easy to let the opponent win, subconsciously I could not let that happen. And I also played inside. I would stack pillows in the threshold of the door in the hallway as if it were a "pile" of players on the goaline, and bust through the pile. I would play tennis against myself using a ping-pong racket and a nerf ball in one of the rooms of the house. I would play imaginary baseball outside by throwing a tennis ball against the side of the house, I had a bunch of rules about strike zones and hits and stuff like that, can't remember all the details.
So yeah, I had an arsenal of imaginary atheletes but never a real imaginary friend.
I remember when to have an imaginary friend was something that I was supposed to have, and I even tried to contrive one, but it seemed too forced and I was never able to maintain one for any extended period of time.
I guess that my imagination is anti-social too...
Floops quesedillas zijn te vergelijken met het likken van fatsige Albert's aars nadat hij een fles laxeermiddel heeft leeggedronken. |
| kathryn |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 11:46:23
Great picture, Rita!
This topic reminds me of the Childhood is Hell book's "Chidhood trauma checklist ," with its "death of imaginary playmate."
 I still believe in the excellent joy of the Frank |
| darwin |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 11:45:07
quote:
Originally posted by Carolynanna
darwin, how did she come up with 'pot' mimi?
I don't know. I always thought that the name "Mimi" (or maybe it's Meme) was interesting because that imaginary girl was usually my daughter's age (but she sometimes rapidly aged with daily birthdays), so "Mimi" might equal "me". I now remember that she also had a "Truck Mimi". Who knows how those little idle minds work.
apl4eris - I don't think she's ever drawn them. We use to ask about them, but our main insight was hearing how she talkedo them. Seeing how she saw the dynamic between "parents" and kids. We didn't always come off looking too good. I also remember that the imaginary friends would also be at public playgrounds, which confused other kids. But, never anything bad with kids staring at her. |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 11:42:55
I know she was called Grotbags after the witch in Windmill
and she was mean, always telling me nasty things
I think it was because I was being bullied at the time
I never had her at school she was always at home, and always
at the door as I was leaving the house and always at the door
when I got back. I think she started off as nice and then got
mean the more depressed I was getting at school so I decided to
ignore her and I think the ignoring made her go away if that makes
sense. I figured if I could ignore the bully then it would go away
and because I couldn't do it with the other kids I could at least do
it with this imaginary "friend" she only lasted three months or so
and then I got into reading a lot so didn't have time to dream up
a new one
you
me
we used to be on fire |
| frank black conspiracy |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 11:32:05
I had one who was blue, but my dad took him here
when i started to play with matches |
| apl4eris |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 11:25:51
quote:
Originally posted by starmekitten
I used to have an imaginary friend that was a big fat witch
I was about 6 too, she bugged me so I ignored her and she went
away after a month or so
The boy who lived over the road from me had an imaginary dog
called junkyard - he was a weirdo
(we're talking up till the age of 15 here)
Do you remember anything more about her? How strange that she bored you...I mean, huh. Weird.
I used to think I might be a witch, when I was about 4 or 5. I'd try to move things with my mind and communicate with people, etc. I was a very angry and depressed little tyke. I think it helped me feel in control. Maybe I was my own imaginary friend? er...
"Junkyard". That's a hoot!
hickster, "Invisible Pig" cracked me up. I'm sure you get to hear that every time your parents bring it up though. That's gotta make you cringe hehe
Lon the Fisherman has wooden legs, but real feet. |
| hickster9 |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 11:08:14
Apparently I had one as a little kid...I don't remember it, but my parents love to provide my friends with stories of me and the "Invisible Pig". Mostly me sitting in one room and looking one way, saying "Here he comes" and then rapidly looking the other way "There he goes". Not sure if there was anything else to it.
I was/am an only child, so I entertained myself quite well. I used to play football in the backyard--I was all of the players at once--throwing the ball high in the air, running under it for a completion and then mauling myself with a brutal hit from the cornerback. After I got up, I would voice "the crowd". Pretty standard stuff really.
Steve |
| starmekitten |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:59:57
I used to have an imaginary friend that was a big fat witch
I was about 6 too, she bugged me so I ignored her and she went
away after a month or so
The boy who lived over the road from me had an imaginary dog
called junkyard - he was a weirdo
(we're talking up till the age of 15 here)
you
me
we used to be on fire |
| Boxcar Waiting |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:58:12
quote:
Originally posted by apl4eris
Elephant: Invisible five-year-old female elephant, seven inches tall, gray color, black eyes, wears tank top and shorts. Child likes that she plays with child, dislikes that sometimes she is mean.
I don't think there's a single McNugget eater in the world who wouldn't want a seven inch high, occasionally mean, pet elephant. That, for my money, is what genetic engineering should be all about.
To answer your original question apl4eris, no, I don't have an invisible friend. |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:56:51
He's beautiful, isn't he? She even brought him clothes in a bag to the holiday!
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
|
| apl4eris |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:54:57
That picture is absolutely delightful rita! That's Winnie the Pooh in "big-people land", right?
darwin, that's amazing. I don't think imaginary friends are abnormal at all, I was speaking about the disturbing aspects of a couple of the accounts in the study. Like the one where the friend lives in the child's head. That reminds me a bit of "The Shining". Does she tell you all about them? I would be incessantly asking about them, all those Mimis! Has she drawn any of them? Sorry I'm so full of questions, but this is fascinating.
Carolynanna, have you ever recorded her for posterity? Is that weird of me to think of that?
Lon the Fisherman has wooden legs, but real feet. |
| Carolynanna |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:54:31
My daughter had a couple but not for awhile.
She does play and talk with her toys quite a bit though.
Sometimes I can hear her for a long time after bedtime, chatting and role playing with them. The voices she makes are cute.
darwin, how did she come up with 'pot' mimi?
__________
Godfather of nothing, ancesters of none.
Black glasses and feedback took my sense of fun.
|
| n/a |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:53:14
Hey Darwin, my daughter and your daughter shoul meet, they would like each other!
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
|
| floop |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:52:30
poor bear. he looks like he wants to come with you guys
ist es möglich für ein quesadilla skrotum zu lecken? beim sprechen der quesadillas von LBF, ja. ja in der tatheheheheheheehehee! |
| darwin |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:44:56
My daugther had and sometime still has imaginary friends (she's now 6). They were Mimi, Big Mimi, Little Mimi. Pot Mimi, and many that I've forgotten. They seemed to always be having birthdays. "Hey! Today is Pot Mimi's birthday!" And for some reason they often occupied the corners of our ceilings. We would be eating dinner and she would breakout in a conversation (looking at a corner of the ceiling) with Mimi or others and often talk to them like we talk to her. So we heard alot of "Stop that Mimi!" or "MiiiiMiiii!" and felt "great that's how we sound?"
She also has a doll that she clutches each night when she goes to sleep for the past 5 years. Her name is Sarah and she often talks to her.
And, I think my daughter is pretty normal. Brilliant, but normal. |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:41:32
Here's a picture of Marias teddy bear in London!
He stayed always at the window, so he could be there waiting for us.
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
|
| n/a |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:36:49
apl4eris, she is 6 years old, and she has this teddy bear since she was 1! She loves him so much that she takes him everywhere we go, and we must not forget about him, or she makes us go back!
It's very good for her, because when she's sad he's a big help
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
|
| apl4eris |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:33:16
quote:
Originally posted by rita
My daughter has one, in fact his a toy, but she deals with him as if he was a human being, he is like another member of the family!
Wow. If I may ask, how old is your daughter? I forget. What kind of toy is he?
I wish i had an imaginary friend when I was young. I was an only child for a long time.
Lon the Fisherman has wooden legs, but real feet. |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/27/2005 : 10:32:02
quote:
Originally posted by floop
quote:
Originally posted by rita
My daughter has one, in fact his a toy, but she deals with him as if he was a human being, he is like another member of the family!
it was nice meeting him too
ist es möglich für ein quesadilla skrotum zu lecken? beim sprechen der quesadillas von LBF, ja. ja in der tatheheheheheheehehee!
And he told me he liked to meet you too!
So, we aren't imaginary friends, are we?
The blood in my veins and the wind in my lungs
And I am breathless without you
|
