"alternate Personalities"

Rachel and Alexis are constantly pretending to be "Jenny, Rachel and Hannah" from our church. I am pleased that they mimic this family's behaviors. The problem is that they have been pretending for over a week to be Jenny and go to the Y and swim, etc etc etc ... to the extent that when I introduced them to some new friends, Rachel said, "NO, my name is Jenny!"
Does she really think she's someone else? Should I be concerned? or just be glad that they play so well together?

 

That's interesting, I don't know. Mine are just starting to get into stuff like that. On the way home today, they were saying they were cats, and calling themselves names of our cats. Oh, just thought of something. On "Jon and Kate +8", one of the little boys (3 yrs old) would pretend to be a different animal every day and want to be called Lion, Tiger, Dragon, whatever for the day.

 

Mine have several alternate personalities!

They are Thomas & Rosie from Thomas the Tank Engine, Puppy and Bunny (the loveys they sleep with), and the Bobo brothers from Diego!

I think it's pretty common at this age!

 

Mine pretend to be their older cousins. CONSTANTLY!!!! I am bothered when they want me to be my SIL, but am not too worried about them.

 

QUOTE(melissao @ Dec 11 2007, 10:48 PM) [snapback]530180[/snapback]
Mine have several alternate personalities!

They are Thomas & Rosie from Thomas the Tank Engine, Puppy and Bunny (the loveys they sleep with), and the Bobo brothers from Diego!

I think it's pretty common at this age!



Same here. Mine like to be the Bobo brothers, Diego and Alicia (Diego's sister), Darby from My Friends Tigger and Pooh, and various different animals. Lately, my DS is on a baby animal kick. Whatever baby animal he can think of that is what he is.

I had the same thoughts as you about personalities. But, I know this is a phase that is normal, but it sure is hard to think it will go away when they seem so convinced that they are someone else. I keep thinking, I'm happy they have such a great imagination and I play along.

 

I had baby bobcats for a long time. They would climb up in my lap and ask to be petted, only respond in mews, and get their brother to lead them around on a leash. Every once in a while I still get asked to make a bowl of milk for Baby Tiger (I guess a grown-up bobcat is a tiger). It turned in to pretend play with their stuffed animals, then action figures. They'll pretend one of their action figures is their cousin or friend from school, and have long pretend games where they discuss things like going to the park, school, etc.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure it's totally normal

 

My boys have been taking on several personalities lately.

When they play football (complete with a pretend mouthpiece) Evan is Noah and Grant is Travis. These are kids names from my high school youth group we would go watch this fall.

Sometimes their dogs and they named themselves Lulu and dede.

When their cats their names are Boss and Hog.

We were firefighters, pilots, and window cleaners all in about 30 minutes this afternoon.

I think its fun most of the time...until they meow answers when their in trouble...then I don't laugh so much.

 

My big girls used to do this all the time too. Their favourite people to be were Olivia and Lucy (the older girls next door), Charlie and Lola (characters from a book), Peter Pan and Tinkerbell and then lots of different baby animals.
Like your girls when they were pretending I had to call them by their pretend name or they would correct me, even if I was saying their name to somebody else. Sometimes they would stay as one character all day and other times they would change character every 5 minutes-very confusing to keep track of!

 

QUOTE(p31heather @ Dec 11 2007, 10:51 PM) [snapback]530116[/snapback]
Does she really think she's someone else? Should I be concerned? or just be glad that they play so well together?


I don't think she thinks she is someone else. I wouldn't be concerned and would be glad that they play so well together. I would be glad that they are using their imaginations (even with pretending to be a real person!).

K&M pretend to be Dora & Diego all the time. They won't answer/talk to me unless I address them as such.
Then they tell me that I am Alicia!

 

We pretend to be kitties sometimes. Ali and I will talk in mews! It is funny and I'm surprised that she allows me to participate - god forbid I SING! :icon_eek:

I think it's normal!! Pretty soon they'll have invisible friends!

 

QUOTE(~* dfaut *~ @ Dec 13 2007, 09:44 AM) [snapback]532125[/snapback]
- god forbid I SING! :icon_eek:

I have to sing ALL THE TIME! "Mama sing Old MacDonald! Mama sing Baa Baa Black Sheep! Mama sing Colors of the Rainbow!" Little do they know that I can't carry a tune in a bucket!

 

Oh my gosh! I'm so happy to hear I'm not the only Mom with children who have "multiple personalities"!
My girls are CONSTANTLY pretending to be some one else. They are very rarely themselves! LOL! They are numerous characters from TV & Disney DVD's, they are other family members, they are animals, they are made up characters I've never heard of...the list goes on.

This has been going on since they were about 18 months. I think the first character was Isabella and as she was climbing over the couch she said, much to my surprise..."I'm a rat!"

I think it's great! I laugh and just play along (because they correct me if I get the wrong name, lol!).

I've read an active imagination is a very good thing in children. It means they're pretty sharp.

 

That's really common for the preschool age. They love experimenting with other names and personas. I've had a baby chinchilla here the last couple of days.