# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Kzbre5m](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f08c70/32.png) [@Kzbre5m](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kzbre5m)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/21 "2017-02-13T17:03:04Z")
> [@From the mouths of babes...](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-mouths-of-babes/153635/25): > > I’ve mentioned my favorite line from 5-year-old **MilliCal** : > > “Daddy, my Imaginary Friend’s friends are telling her that I don’t exist!” One of my favorites too. ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/22 "2017-02-13T17:44:23Z")
I had an imaginary big brother named Xevious. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/23 "2017-02-13T17:54:28Z")
I did, from c. 3-4. Possible precipitating event-my father, often stressed out from his 15 hours a day medical career, hit me one day (when I was about 3 yes). Soon I had an imaginary friend. If my real name was actually “John”, then I would have called him (back then) “Johnny.” Now. I was a very bright and imaginative kid, with a vocabulary several years beyond my biological age-and I choose a name for my little friend which is just a simple boring variation on my own? I would insist on a place at the meal table for him. Then we got my sister, when was 4 1/2. One day Mom asked me where Johnny was, since she hadn’t seen me “playing” with him in awhile. I told her that, since I now have a sister, I had sent him away, to “Mars”… ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/24 "2017-02-13T18:04:45Z")
Yes, he was named Fred and lived in a pink camp trailer. I don’t remeber much else. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/25 "2017-02-13T18:09:30Z")
I got a little sibling when I was only 19 months old, so the house was already too crowded to add imaginary friends… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/26 "2017-02-13T18:23:49Z")
When I was a kid, I was jealous of my sister, because she had an imaginary friend but I didn’t. Because of course Rocco, the 3-inch tall invisible deer who flew around in a little airplane and who only I could see, was real. Many years later, I learned that my sister never actually had an imaginary friend; she just pretended to, because she was jealous of me. **John DiFool** , I have no idea where I got the name “Rocco”, since it wasn’t like any name I’d encountered at that point, and most of my stuffed animals as a child have had horribly unimaginative names like “Kitty” and “Mousey” and the like. Of course, if you had asked me, I’d have said that I knew Rocco’s name because he told me. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/27 "2017-02-13T19:07:54Z")
I had an imaginary girlfriend. Shortly after we consummated the relationship, she ghosted me. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/28 "2017-02-13T19:16:52Z")
Yes. His name was Jesus. He lived everywhere and was purported to be some sort of omnipotent deity. Then I turned 6 and stopped believing in fairy tales. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/29 "2017-02-13T22:28:10Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > most of my stuffed animals as a child have had horribly unimaginative names like “Kitty” and “Mousey” and the like. Mine too. :o Mr. Bear, Mr. Frog, and their companions were the closest I came to an imaginary friend. I would explain things to them and they would serve as a little audience for me to figure things out to. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/30 "2017-02-13T22:36:28Z")
I had two: Tommy and Susan. Then I started school and they went away. But my little brother had the mice, the snakes, the rats, and the rabbits. They lived in a rundown hotel not too far from the WinnDixie. My brother was a weird kid. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/31 "2017-02-13T23:55:21Z")
No. I grew up in a house of 7 people and 3 dogs. I didn’t have time for imaginary friends. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/32 "2017-02-14T00:10:24Z")
Mostly Disney characters- first from _The Little Mermaid_, then _The Lion King_ and _Pocahontas_. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Wormer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d07c76/32.png) [@Marion\_Wormer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Wormer)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/33 "2017-02-14T23:30:57Z")
No. I grew up on a farm. I had a dog and a dairy cow (holstein) My father would let me sit on her back when she was getting milked. I’m not sure why they ‘gave’ me a cow because I never got paid for her milk. I mean once you have a dog and a cow, who needs imaginary friends? ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/34 "2017-02-15T00:39:09Z")
> [@Tibby or Not Tibby](#): > > 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! Nice. Did you ever read John Collier’s “Thus I refute Beelzy”? I think you’d like it. ---
**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 15, 2017, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/35 "2017-02-15T01:47:30Z")
> [@Tapiotar](#): > > Nice. Did you ever read John Collier’s “Thus I refute Beelzy”? I think you’d like it. I will give it a read. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/36 "2017-02-15T02:55:51Z")
I don’t remember having any imaginary friends. But my daughter, somewhere around two and a half years, told me that there’s a blue witch who lives behind the television. She still (at three) believes this. I don’t know if this qualifies as an imaginary friend. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/37 "2017-02-15T06:27:36Z")
No, and neither did either one of my brothers, nor, to my knowledge, any of our cousins. From conversations about literary imaginary friends, the whole paternal side of the family was quite confused by the notion. ---
**Author:** ![Enuma\_Elish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5e9695/32.png) [@Enuma\_Elish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enuma_Elish)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/38 "2017-02-15T12:26:19Z")
No, I never had an imaginary friend. Once though, halfway through 2nd grade, when I was living in the 8th house and 6th town, I felt a hand on my back just as I was on the verge of sleep (sleeping on my side) and woke up screaming bloody-murder that Satan had touched my back… Slept flat on my back for 6 years before I got over it and could sleep on my side again… ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/39 "2017-02-15T16:54:14Z")
Of course not! I’m a sane, well-adjusted, no-crutches-needed adult! But the invisible giant space hamster that likes hanging out with me seems to. In fact, he seems to think I’m imaginary. Fancy that! ---
**Author:** ![PoppaSan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/poppasan/32/189_2.png) [@PoppaSan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoppaSan)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600/40 "2017-02-15T18:31:01Z")
One of my sons had “grandma” that sat on his bed at nap time and read him stories. Another had “grandpa” do it a few times. My daughter has aliens that live in the basement (George the spider) or in the attic (the access panel is in her bedroom.) George has since moved out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-have-an-imaginary-friend/779600.md?page=3)