Imagnary Friend

I am a psychic/medium and do paranormal investigations. Children do not have the filters adults have and will often see, hear and feel ghosts or entities we don't. You may have a resident ghost. They are usually harmless but can scare the bejeebers out you. Start to document what he says and about Diddy and see if can determine a pattern in the visits.

Feel free to PM me though it's been a crazy busy week for me so I may not respond as promptly as I normally do.

I think it's normal for children to have imaginary friends at such a young age. My husband vividly recalls having his imaginary friend. And even to this day, he will tell you he was as real to him as any human.
Do spirits contact children through imaginary friends? I guess the answer would all depend on how you feel about the afterlife. Our son claimed to have a "blue boy" that would visit him at night when he was about your son's age. We only lived in that house for a short while, and when we moved, he never mentioned him again. But there again, he still vividly recalls him. My son is a bright, intelligent, 14yo young man, who is normal in every sense of the word. I personally think it's a stage some children go through and eventually outgrow. Our son was a frequent sleep walker, as well as was I.
We never attempted to try and tell our son that the boy wasn't real or that he was seeing things that weren't there. We allowed him to talk openly about him. We encouraged him to set boundaries with his "friend", and it never posed a problem.
Sleep walking was a challenge because I was always afraid he would go outside while we were all asleep. I don't think I ever recall an incident that this ever happened. Usually if he got up, we heard him and helped him return to bed or we were still awake.
Frankly, it never crossed my mind to talk to his doctor about any of it because I didn't think it was abnormal. My hangups about that are mainly because I envision a parent going to a doctor with these issues mentioned, and the doctor's first instinct would be to label my child and give him drugs. It certainly would be your call to contact his doctor if you are concerned, but if he hasn't harmed or attempted to harm anyone, I think I would probably just talk him through it. If he mentions his friend telling him to do things I would definately let him know that those things are not acceptable. Boundaries for friends-imaginary or otherwise. Good luck.

Teach your son about "seniority". This is the concept that he has the right, because he has a physical body and his imaginary friend doesn't, to tell his friend what to do instead of the other way around. He has the right to tell his friend to be nice or leave. He definitely doesn't have to listen to this friend.

You can also prompt him to bring in whatever help he needs. Ask him to think about who or what can come in to help him with his friend when his friend is being scary or mean. Encourage him to be creative and let him know that he has the ability to stop this kind of scary thing himself.

Even though Diddy only exists in your son's imagination, to him, Diddy seems real. So telling him that Diddy isn't real isn't going to accomplish anything.
Please don't freak him out by suggesting that Diddy is some sort of evil spirit or demon. Kids that age are still naive enough to believe that such things as evil spirits, demons, and monsters actually exist. All you will do is make him afraid to go into his own bedroom. He already thinks that Diddy is real. No need to make him think that Diddy is real AND out to steal his soul.

You CAN tell him that if Diddy is mean to him, then HE can tell Diddy that if she won't be nice, she will have to go away and never come back, that he does not have to tolerate Diddy or anyone else hitting him or scaring him. And of course, you should tell him that "Diddy told me to" isn't a reason to do things he knows are not acceptable, that if Diddy tells him to do something he knows is wrong, to tell Diddy "No" and send her away.

It's normal for children to have imaginary friends. The fact that your son has this at just two could be a sign that he's quite gifted. But regardless of his intelligence, at 2, he's not going to have much capacity to distinguish between fantasy and reality, so it's normal and okay for a child to be scared by an imaginary friend.

What I really want to advise, N., is that you NOT freak out. It's fine and healthy and appropriate for a toddler to have imaginary friends. But your son is so young, he takes all his cues from you. So the more you act freaked out by "Diddy," the scarier Diddy is going to be. By the same token, you can redirect Diddy into not being scary. Just say things like, "Why don't you and Diddy play nicely with your cars while I get dinner together?" Or, "Diddy loves bathtime. Why don't you both get in the bath?" And "Oh, it's late. It's Diddy's bedtime. Get your PJs on, and I'll read you both a nice story."

Really, if you act like Diddy is nice and friendly and a good influence, Diddy will become those things. If you act like Diddy is scary and a threat, that's what Diddy is going to be.

P.S. At 3, my son's imaginary friends were named Dia and Duffy. I wonder what it is about the letter D.

Talk to the Pediatrician about this.

Go in the bedroom with your son and have a talk with "Diddy". It will help your son to know that 1. he feels like you believe him and 2. you won't take kindly to anyone or thing messing around with your kid.
I recently went through this exact same thing with my daughter. We put up LED string lights to ease then darkness but that didn't help with her seeing people in her room. For her, it was "the lady" and "the little boy with a tummy ache". It was "the lady" that scared her because she said the lady just stood by her bed and didn't talk. So we went in and had a little talk with "the lady". Told her not to scare my daughter or wake her up at night, and if she did, she would have to get out.
Things have slowly gotten better over the last several weeks. Now, she never mentions the lady at all (where she was talking about it every night and waking up multiple times).
Hope this helps!

Oh, my. I had Rocio D. send me a very similar "answer". Please don't think that you have Satan dwelling in your home, or a doorway opened, or that you are doing something, "...forbidden by God" to bring this on. My guess is that this is normal for his developmental age/stage.

I'd talk with your pediatrician about it. My daughter had night terrors (and Rocio, whoever you are, please don't tell me that it's because there was an occult item in her room). We learned that these intense and scary dreams have three triggers:
over tired
over stimulated (really big day like a huge birthday party with too much 'fun')
over warm
See if getting him to bed a bit earlier helps, take off one thin layer from his bedding, and mellower days when possible. If you can hear him on a monitor having a bad nightmare, go in there are do something to break the deep sleep cycle he's in. Our Dr. recommended something physical that required her input, like getting a drink of water or taking her to sit on the toilet. That would be enough to break it and she'd go back to sleep just fine. It doesn't sound like your son is having night terrors though, because he remembers them in the morning, right? With night terrors you can ask them about it in the a.m. and they don't remember.

Maybe do something to 'empower' your son. Maybe you and your son (or the whole family) can have a mini-meeting and he can express his concerns about Diddy. Then you can talk with Diddy, with your stern Mommy voice and tell Diddy she is only allowed to come visit when she follows the family rules. Say something like, "Diddy, in our family we do not hit. We use gentle word and are kind to each other." You get what I'm saying. I think this is totally normal and age appropriate--a lot of kids go through this sort of thing.

I agree with the advice to perhaps talk to the pediatrician. It could be normal childhood behavior on the one hand or as bad a schizophrenia on the other hand, we cannot assess that from a short paragraph. However, while neither of my girls had imaginary friends, they did go through the stage where they were afraid at night (at 2 when separation anxiety might be more the issue and again at kiindergarten age). I just put a camping pad and sleeping bag in the room and read a book while she was falling asleep (after reading to her), and for about 2 weeks slept in her room. Then I would change to reading while she fell asleep but not sleeping in the room. After that I would read in the room but leave to sit in the hallway while she was still awake. Then she slept through the night and I slept in my own bed. There is a very good book by Dr. Ferber called "how to solve you child's sleep problems" that I kept a copy of when my kids were little. It talks about everything from helping a 6 month old sleep through the night, to night terrors, sleep walking, etc. He is a sleep researcher and his advice is very specific and easy to follow. Maybe if you are around he won't be so scared, and Diddy can not tell him what to do anymore. But I would also speak to his pediatrician. Good luck.