So today Little Miss and I were walking home from school just enjoying the sunshine and chatting, as we do every day, I asked her if she had a nice day at school, she said yeah, when I asked her who she played with, she said a few names then she said she also played with “Nanni”. At the sound of this kids name I was instantly worried. Nanni isn’t a child in her class, though the name is similar to some of the kids names, no, Nanni is Little Miss’ imaginary friend, or at least we think it is.
Nanni’s name crops up every so often when we ask Little Miss who she is playing with in her room or blamed when she gets into trouble for something. I’ve asked her several times who Nanni is and she tells me its her friend that lives far far away. I thought it was cute in the beginning to be honest but I worried today as I hope Nanni isn’t appearing in school because she is playing by herself, or having problems. I love my daughters imagination, she is so good at playing alone but I really hope her imaginary friend isn’t stopping her from making real ones.
Should I be worried? Did/do your kids have imaginary friends? Did you? What are your thoughts guys?
I can see from what you said why you might worry about ‘Nanni’ like that but it’s probably just a way Little Miss has to fill the gap–perhaps Nanni is happy doing things other friends aren’t or perhaps her school friends talk about their other friends who visit them from far away (real or imaginary!) and so Little Miss wants one too? I don’t know much about imaginary friends, but it seems a lot of kids have them.