I’ve mentioned before that Little M has a vivid imagination, his ‘friend’ Charlie has however long gone. Not sure where he has gone, I am a bit nervous to ask, he may be dead, or shot or maybe he’s moved. I can never quite predict what Little M may come out with.
However it has come to my attention that Little M’s ‘stories’ are being believed by people and I can quite understand why, he is a pretty good actor and very convincing. Something has happened this week that makes me wonder whether I should have a word with him about his little tales or whether I should be just be thrilled to have a child with such a vivid imagination even if it means that sometimes people are put in an awkward position having to explain it all. Thank goodness for older siblings is all I can say.
So, should I worry? Should I encourage this? On the other hand, is he capable of lying at such a young age in which case I should discourage this. Or…maybe he is reincarnated and what he is saying is actually true! See, I am trying to be open minded but I am a bit perturbed. Any ideas…anyone? Please.
Leave him, people often believe Maini;s tall tales and tall tales are all they are. More fool them if they choose to believe that he is friends with the half inside out people who live on the highstreet or as I found at the park this week, that him mum is dead and he only has a sister who looks after him and a dog called anakin!
It’s a bit scary how convincing they are isn’t it. I remember you saying about the inside out people before. I wonder where he gets that from. 🙂
Thanks for the support Jen. X
You’ve had such good advice here so I’d say don’t worry too much just ask him to say when it is true life or when it is pretend and he’ll soon get the picture!
Thank you. I’m not too worried, more concerned about the people that believe his little tales. 😉
I think part of it is normal? Our Stan (our first boy…so different from the girls), is QUITE the story teller. We try and reign him when he does know that it (the story) has gone into “lie” mode. For us, we actually can sense that he “knows” he’s gone too far.
Thank you Patty. I’m not sure yet whether he realises when he’s gone too far but maybe he’ll grow out of it. Or maybe he’ll write novels when he’s older. 😀
I think at this point, he loves the reaction. You may want to explain to him that he needs to clarify when he is telling one of his beautiful stories – so people aren’t confused. It will be difficult though – because at that young they have a hard time telling the difference. By no means, discourage him from his stories though – because you want to nurture that imagination!
Thanks. Yea I think he’s too young to understand. He’s going to be the novelist of the family I think. 😀
Hi, I’m not sure how old he is, but I’d say that it is possible that he does not understand the boundary between imagination and lying. If his stories are interesting/entertaining then they will get a response that he is looking for. So possibly he has learned how to keep getting that response. As far as reincarnation is concerned I am open to persuasion. I don’t know enough about it but I’d say there are some compelling stories out there. My son has a wonderfully vivid imagination. Some of it is just playful and we can get creative with it. But some of it is a little more serious (he seems to be deeply considering things he believes to be true) and can be more worrying. From a very young age he would refer to his “Grandmother” as someone he sees. My one mum is called Grandma but his dad’s mum died many years ago – I never met her so it was long before my son was born. I always felt his fascination with her came from a story he’d heard so I chose not to worry about it. I often wondered whether he’d been visited by her ghost, but would immediately dismiss it as ridiculous. We tend to respond by saying that his Grandmother is always with us but she died after being poorly. Since this all began other relatives have also died so they’re all together looking after us. It seems to have stopped lately so I can only assume that if it was a way for him to deal with something that was bothering him then he is no longer bothered by that. I do think that young children have a greater ability to perceive things that are not “normal” though – like their openess allows them to access that plane somehow. All I can suggest is to talk about it, don’t dismiss it, but try to rationalise it as it may just be that he needs help in understanding a confusing part of the world.
I hope that helps. Please excuse any typos – I can’t always catch them when using my phone!
Just another thanks for the advice and ‘chat’ x