Re: Childhood fantasy

[Guest guest]

If you hadn't signed your post, I'd have never guess that happened to you, Beach

Bunny! You bring so much laughter and light to this site! Pat yourself on the

back, give yourself a big hug, and buy TWO pink plastic tea sets...you have

truely turned hurt into hope! -

Lilly LaFlure wrote: Beach Bunny:

Do me a favor, as soon as you can go straight to the toy store and buy yourself

a pink plastic tea set. If I lived near you I would be right at the store this

minuet picking it up for you and bringing it to your house!

Lilly

" Beach Bunny (Angel) " wrote:

Awww...Lizzy...this is an awesome post...i just couldn't help but smile from ear

to ear when I read it.

My imagination was squelched as a child...neither of my parents condoned it so i

think it was watered down. I was always taught that pretending was wrong...so i

had a really hard time coming up with fun stuff as a kid. I actually got

punished one time for having a " tea party " with my stuffed animals...my father

made me take my plastic tea set out in the driveway and he made me stomp the

plastic cup into little pieces. I had to save my " make believe " for Halloween.

(I'm actually completely shocked that my mother didn't make me go from door to

door to tell the neighbors that i wasn't really whatever it was i was disguised

as the night before)

Sad as that may seem, imagination was a wonderful gift that was given to me by

my children. My imagination grew with theirs and it has been a fabulous journey.

It worked out great because as a girl scout leader all the " cheesy " stuff was

new to me and I couldn't have enjoyed the stuff more. My excitement really

rubbed off on the kids..i don't think we ever got through a sock puppet show to

the end...we always ended up laughing so hard we couldn't finish. I still

remember the look on my husband's face when I came home excited from

daycamp....i was over the moon because i got to pretend to be a lion! It was a

scream. I never read typical bedtime stories to my kids...we would read during

the day, but at night we made up our own stories...they were always the " to be

continued " type....we made up our own characters, our own stories, our own

beginning, middle and end. It worked out great because that way we could

continue the story anytime and for any reason...we weren't

attached to the words written on the page. Our main character was usually the

" lollipop dragon " ....he still hasn't found his name (in almost 17 years)....he's

had run-in's with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the tooth fairy...he's even

gone a spell dealing with a sudden allergy to lollipops! (When my daughter was

upset one day because she was left out of an ice cream party....she is lactose

intolerant) Just last night my daughter climbed into bed with us after hearing a

scary noise last night...we continued our winged friend's caper a little longer

and she is almost 17! (Seems our little lollipop friend has his eye on a cute

little girl dragon) What's great about those stories is that there is no reason

to turn on a light! (Which comes in handy at 2am)

I'm excited to hear everyone else's experiences...this is a great topic!

lizzyboo81 wrote: So how many of you guys had very active

imaginations as kids or

still do as adults? Not the kind like you have a problem separating

fantasy from reality just like the creative kind. I know my

imagination is very active. For example making up games, exotic or

funny cooking (I like to make silly cakes for the kids), trying new

things, especially dreaming wild dreams, and making up funny short

stories for the kids.

The reason I got to thinking this was I was thinking about being a

kid as I was watching my own children. Especially with all the

holidays that have came and went recently. I remember when I was a

kid I loved to play make believe. I really used my imagination all

the time. And now with my kids I don't think they use theirs as

often as I used mine I think I was in a constant state of

imagination (no longer the case but I can easily turn it on). I see

my oldest loves to play animals and he loves to imagine he is an

animal that is cool because he loves animals. My youngest believes

in Santa and the Easter bunny but there was never any fooling the

oldest he tries to convince the younger one and me ;)ha-ha that

Santa is not real and the younger one doesn't care he just has fun

with himself that Santa is true (he calls him HOHOHO and he is

almost 5)

Even when I was a kid like 10 I believed in space aliens and

leprechauns and fairies and mermaids and all that good stuff. We

always played gypsies and runaway and witch. I would spend hours

trying to catch a leprechaun to get to the rainbow. And I would run

deep into the forest convinced I was a runaway gypsy dousing myself

in cooking vanilla as my magic potion of protection. I loved to

watch the night sky and every plane I saw I just knew it was a space

ship carrying aliens! I would write stories about how the alien

would someday land and make friends with me and fly me away.

I think my fantasy life helped me to escape the daily drama in the

home. I would pack some PB and J runaway. I am glad I had such a

great fantasy life as a child. I had a lot of fun in my fantasy

world with my friends. While most girls were playing house I played

gypsy!

But I think this has helped me keep the fantasy alive even in my

grown life I have fun writing short stories and helping my kids play

imagination games and use their creativity. This is especially good

for me to help my oldest who tends to be very practical. I cant even

trick him that there is a tooth fairy! He just wants me to hand over

the money! But I make him wait and get it under his pillow for fun.

My husband thinks it's dippy but we have to have some fun in life.

That is my experience I would love for you to share your child hood

fantasy's!

Three cheers to Bigfoot, Mermaids, and Fairies! Long live

imagination!

Kisses and Nibbles,

Bunny