Imaginary friend or overactive imagination?

my 2 and a half year old son has been "playing" with a boy called peter in our back garden for about 3 weeks now and nobody else can see him! the first time he told me about "peter" he said he was crying behind our garden shed and since then he has played in the garden constantly with his "friend"! this is starting to worry my partner because he is convinced that there are ghosts in the garden but i just think he has a very good imagination and wont knock him down for it!



what does everyone think?

Imaginary friend or overactive imagination?
Have you asked your son why Peter was crying when they first met? That might shed some light on the subject of ghost versus imagination. Has you son seen "Peter Pan" recently? If you recall in the original version of the movie Wendy find Peter crying over having lost his shadow. If your son has no unusual story for Peter's crying and has not seen Peter Pan then Peter is probably just an imaginary friend every kid has one and he will grow out of it. If he has seen Peter Pan it is still an imaginary friend and that explains the beginning of Peter's existence. If however your son tells you the reason Peter is crying and it is a more serious matter or an unusual story then your partner might be right and Peter may be a ghost at which point you may need to contact someone (a Priest, Pastor or Psychic) to help Peter find his way home. Either way if you son is playing with him he seems harmless real or not. Good Luck I hope that advise helps.
Reply:firstly you can get the name peter just by watching the television or if you've been listening to the radio,but i don't think there's anything wrong with imaginary friends,maybe peter acts the way your little boy wants and plays the games he wants even though he isn't real sometimes its good to vent feelings even if he is only 2 and a half everybody vents feelings 1 way or another its how we work our difficulties out.
Reply:maybe peter did die behind your shed, and your son can see him. I find it odd that he would rather play with peter than his other real friends. I had an imaginary friend when I was little, her name was sally, she went everywhere with me. My mother and grandmother had to go back into the mall one time because we left sally in the mall. I hung onto my imaginary friends till i was in jr high. But I also didn't have very many friends, and grew up as an only child. Its nothing to worry about really, lots of kids have imaginary friends. Just out of curiosity you might look into the history of your house and see if a peter did live there.
Reply:My granddaughter has a had an imaginary friend since she has been 16 months. His name is Tom and hangs out by the bathroom door and back door. She is now almost 5.



My imaginary friend's name was Tom also when I was a young child. The last time I can remember seeing him was when I was almost 5. We moved to another city and he didn;t come with us.
Reply:Very normal for children to have imaginary friends, and they can come up with names randomly too. It isn't a ghost, just a normal child playing. Does he get time to play with other children so he doesn't have to just play with Peter? It might help to have some real friends come over.
Reply:ask more questions about ''peter'' like where he lives how old he is things like that finding out more information wouldnt help... it seems to real for it to be his imagination.. good luck=)
Reply:I am 31 years old and i still have a good imaginary friend. His name is Chris.
Reply:your partner thinks its a ghost wow
Reply:My daughter had an imaginary friend at 2 as well, she was called 'moo-moo' and lived at our back door.

We then moved house and she found another imaginary friend called 'magic mary'



Dont know if they were ghosts or her imagination but she grew out of it once she started school and had real friends.

Dont worry!
Reply:I agree, it's all part of early growing up. I haven't experience this with my children, but I have friends who have. One little girl I know used to freak out if her parents sat on the chair where her friend was sitting. You are right to let your boy express himself. We have forgotten as adults what it is like to be 2. x
Reply:It's good that your kid has an imagination. Also, he's playing outside, and that's great, too.
Reply:My daughter had a imaginary friend for about 4 years I think. She just started talking about her friend Sarah, it did used to creep my out sometimes when she used to say she was wearing victorian clothes. She used to say dont sit there Sarah is sitting there and stuff like that. I just asked her about it and she said she cant remember having the imaginary friend at all.
Reply:Its an imaginary friend, its fairly common, nothing wrong with it.
Reply:Overactive imagination, hopefully it don't last long or else he may become mental.