How common is it for a 2.5 year old make up stories?

[anothermom]

One of the other posts had me thinking about some of the things our 2-1/2 year old dc says about preschool friends or time with other family members, and how much of it is actually what happened or how much is just a story being told.

I certainly think the majority is truth, and there isn't really an ability to understand lying at this point. And all of it is harmless, but sometimes things just seem a little silly to be really what happened.

Also, I wonder if something is being told that was an earlier experience -- for example, grandma and grandpa had given cookies for a snack [last month], but it's the response to "what did you eat at g&g's house today?" -- when I know for sure there were no cookies offered that day.

Sometimes dc will say that something hurts - like a foot - when I was commenting about foot pain a few days earlier, and I don't take it seriously. But I certainly don't want to be blowing things off as toddler babble when it's not.

What do you all think?

[bubbaray]

My DD#1 only recently started the intentional "fibbing" or lying. She'll be 4 next month. And, she's a horrible liar, LOL. Gets this smirky smirk on her face. We can always tell.

Prior to this, she sometimes would confuse things/days -- combining events that happened on 2 different days into one, that sort of thing.

But, if a child says that the GPs gave them cookies, I'd probably believe the child, LOL! ;)

[brittone2]

First and foremost, I would certainly take any talk of pain/injury, or abuse, etc. seriously no matter what. I wouldn't brush any of those scenarios off to imagination alone, but instead would investigate a bit further.

That said, I think pretend play takes a bit of a jump around 2ish. Kids often confuse what they want/hope for vs. reality quite a bit a well. Add to that a poor understanding of time (my 4 year old is just getting a better grasp on the passage of time now), I think you are likely to see all kinds of "stories" that may be totally untrue, partially true, or completely true.

[californiagirl]

Oh, they make up stories all the time. All The Time. Or do things that sound to us like making up stories (like, they don't really do time yet, so they say they did something today that really happened 2 months ago, or like processing stuff by saying it happened to them).

But there's this core of truth there; the stories reflect stuff, stuff that matters to them. A kid that talks about hitting on the playground is a kid that's worried about hitting on the playground. Probably the players in the story are the players in real life. Are the times, frequencies, exact incidents right? No. DD used to fall down, in front of my eyes, at home, and then tell me that W pushed her. That wasn't true. But he did push her other times (and she pushed him, too, which featured a lot less in her version...)

[Rayray24]

I can't remember when dd started doing stuff like this but she is 4 now and still does it, she seems to remember bits of things from some days then strings them togeather, like we went on vacation almost 6 months ago and she will still tell pp she seen sharks and they tried to bite her, and this all happened yesterday. (Everything in her world happened yesterday. If we seen a movie on sun., thursday she would tell you she seen a movie yesterday. ) She did see sharks and they came close to her (behind glass) but they never tried to bite her. She also told me things when she was in daycare that so and so smacked her. I couldn't figure out for a while why they were letting this happen, then when I talked to the teacher she told me that if someone wasn't paying attention and ran into her or if something got thrown and happen to hit her, then someone smacked her. So I think it depends on how the child remembers and what they "think" has happened. I would agree with other pp and if your being told something hurts or someone is doing something I would check into it. But I think its common for them to do this.
~~Jennie~~:boogie:

[catcombs]

My DD who is also 2 1/2 declares rather dramatically "I'm sick" at least once a day. I honestly think it's because of a Caliou episode where he and Rosie get the flu. Because she puts her hand to her forehead and will say I'm sick, I have a fever and she is not sick at all. She also used to say her foot hurt or her elbow and any body part. I chalked that up to wanting my attention because it started after the baby became more mobile and started getting more attention.

[lizajane]

if you have a hurt foot and then she suddenly has a hurt foot, she is just trying to be like you. if no one has a hurt foot BUT her, then her foot hurts. when DH had a very serious cycling accident and spent the night at the hospital, DYLAN also had a very bad wreck in his bike. he was 2 1/2. he didn't own a bike.

[hillview]

DS is 2.5 years old. He does the following:
1) Says he went swimming in puerto rico today when he was there last month
2) Wants a cookie, when I ask if Daddy said it was ok DS says yes (and I heard Daddy say no)
3) Says I am a cat
4) Says there is a horse following us home

For #1 I agree he went swimming and mention that it was last month but not in a corrective way.
For #2 I suggest that was not the case "I don't think daddy said it was ok, are you sure?"
#3/4 is imaginary and we both know it

I think it is normal behavior.
/hillary

[brittone2]

if you have a hurt foot and then she suddenly has a hurt foot, she is just trying to be like you. if no one has a hurt foot BUT her, then her foot hurts. when DH had a very serious cycling accident and spent the night at the hospital, DYLAN also had a very bad wreck in his bike. he was 2 1/2. he didn't own a bike.

Not funny about your husband, but the story about Dylan made me laugh :)

Has your hubby recovered fully? I think about him often as DH cycles, and truthfully, it makes me nervous at times because he partially bike commutes, so he rides in a busy part of C.H.