# Did you have an imaginary friend? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 11, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600 "2017-02-11T23:22:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/1 "2017-02-11T23:22:24Z")
When I was a small child, I had an imaginary friend named Jimmy. I don’t remember him, but my late mother told me that I would blame Jimmy for making me do things I wasn’t supposed to do - like crossing the railroad tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/2 "2017-02-11T23:46:40Z")
I used to get eye floaters all the time when I was a kid. Not knowing what eye floaters where back then, I somehow convinced myself that thing was my invisible friend that only I could see. I called him Rice. And Rice had seven companions that where constantly with him that only he could “see” and “hear”. And he would always consult with them. So if I asked Rice a question like: “Should I get that last cookie from the cookie jar?”, Rice would first consult with his companions and then let me know what the consensus was. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/3 "2017-02-11T23:51:23Z")
No. Never. Which seems out of the ordinary. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/4 "2017-02-11T23:55:53Z")
Nope. I didn’t have imaginary friends. And I didn’t think that there were monsters under my bed. But my parents took me to see **Poltergeist** shortly before I turned five, and I spent several months convinced that the clown doll I’d been given as a newborn would come to life and get me if I didn’t tie it up in shoelaces and put it in my closet at night. I guess that’s kind of an imaginary foe. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/5 "2017-02-11T23:56:19Z")
Well, there’s all you guys… ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/6 "2017-02-12T00:01:02Z")
I had an imaginary pet English setter, since my parents wouldn’t let me get a real one. I forget what her name was, but I used to play fetch with her in the field behind our house; I’d throw sticks into the tall grass and she didn’t really bring them back. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/7 "2017-02-12T00:49:47Z")
I did, but have no memory of it. My mother talked about it later. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/8 "2017-02-12T00:59:48Z")
Not that I recall. I have probably only ever seen bits of two or three episodes of _The Big Bang Theory_ but I loved this exchange: > [@](#): > > Missy: Oh, I don’t think so. Shelly doesn’t like company. Even as a little boy he’d send his imaginary friends home at the end of the day. > > Sheldon: They were not friends, they were imaginary colleagues. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/9 "2017-02-12T01:13:17Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Nope. I didn’t have imaginary friends. And I didn’t think that there were monsters under my bed. > > But my parents took me to see **Poltergeist** shortly before I turned five, and I spent several months convinced that the clown doll I’d been given as a newborn would come to life and get me if I didn’t tie it up in shoelaces and put it in my closet at night. I guess that’s kind of an imaginary foe. You must be a Sim. 😃 > [@](#): > > Imaginary Friends return as a new life state in The Sims 3: Generations.[1] An Imaginary Friend begins its life as a magical doll that a newborn baby or a toddler may receive in the mail from a distant relative. Under the right conditions, the doll can come to life after its owner grows into a child. I had imaginary neighbor kids but I was too shy to interact. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/10 "2017-02-12T01:15:25Z")
“Sometimes I think all my friends have been imaginary.” -_Calvin & Hobbes_ (Calvin’s Dad’s Brother–Uncle Max) ---
**Author:** ![Orr\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ee59a6/32.png) [@Orr\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orr_G)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/11 "2017-02-12T03:20:51Z")
One of my earliest memories is of being in the basement near the furnace, and some man I didn’t know was standing there working on it and telling me I probably shouldn’t be down there. I asked him who he was, and he told me that he was my uncle, Jimmy. I must have asked what “uncle” was, because I remember him explaining that he was my dad’s brother. So for about a year after that I had an imaginary brother named Jimmy who lived in the furnace. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/12 "2017-02-12T04:01:03Z")
I had an imaginary friend. His name was Gorgo. All I had to do was summon Gorgo with my mind and he would appear from over the horizon and kick the ass of anyone who was giving me shit. Gorgo never \*actually \*came to my rescue, but I suspect that was only because he was involved in some other important mission…or perhaps he was just too lazy to wake from hibernation and rise from the murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean (that’s a common problem with giant aquatic lizards you know). In any case, my young neighborhood friends and foes believed that Gorgo was indeed my friend and so they didn’t give me any shit, lest I summon him to kick their asses. He kind of looked like Godzilla, except Gorgo had big ears—and he was real. Better still, as big as Gorgo was, he was just an infant. If I needed a real weapon of mass destruction, I could summon his mother. I could have used [Gorgo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhpyINgW9Lk) during my divorce case a couple years ago, but he failed me there, too…damned hypertrophic pituitary gland lizard! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/13 "2017-02-12T04:22:55Z")
There was a small reproduction of [this painting](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/Auguste_Renoir_-_A_Girl_with_a_Watering_Can_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/280px-Auguste_Renoir_-_A_Girl_with_a_Watering_Can_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) on my bedroom wall when I was little. I named her “Alice”. I don’t think I ever actually pretended to play with her, but I remember talking to her on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/14 "2017-02-12T04:27:50Z")
Mitchell Brown was my imaginary friend. We used to run around in my yard and play soldiers. He was shorter than me. That’s about all I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/15 "2017-02-12T04:50:02Z")
Nope, but my oldest son did. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/16 "2017-02-12T05:18:34Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > I did, but have no memory of it. My mother talked about it later. Same here kinda but I’m not 100% sure I believe my mother. I am sure I didn’t after the age of say 3 and I caught her out on some other claims about my early life. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/17 "2017-02-12T20:36:05Z")
Oh yes around age six. I am a guy and my imaginary friend was a girl, Deenee.😃 ---
**Author:** ![The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_King_of_Soup)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/18 "2017-02-12T20:45:19Z")
I had real people that I imagined were my friends. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2017, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/19 "2017-02-12T20:46:01Z")
That’s the only kind of friend I have now. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/20 "2017-02-13T04:25:32Z")
Never had an imaginary friend as a child, although I did gain one as an adult. People may find it weird, but I don’t think it’s a problem as long as you keep the “imaginary” part foremost in mind. Although sometimes I get confused as to which one of us is imaginary. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600.md?page=2)