3 year old scared of her imaginary friend. what do i do?

My daughter has recently gotten some imaginary friends. I wouldnt be concerned about it but she often gets very frightened by one in particular and spends a lot of her time being clingy as a result. Sometimes she can sit for as long as an hour talking to him before becoming very agitated, shouting at him for pushing her and bursting into tears. She also puts on a completely different voice sometimes and tells me to go away, even if I'm minding my own business. She's become afraid of the dark since the arrival of her "friends" and I'm not really sure how to manage this. i dont let her watch television at all and she will only watch very specific childrens programmes when she isnt at my house so i dont know where she could have picked this up from.

i'm just not sure how long i can carry on watching her be so obviously in distress so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[margypops]

I would not feed into it she may be playing to the audience, so let her say what she wants to .it may be a god idea to speak to her pediatrician and see what he thinks ,Does she go to day care or pre school ?

[ifyouseeher]

she goes to stay and play, but even then i'm constantly nearby so i'm monitoring her interaction with other children (she can be quite aggressive with other children, so i have to be on hand to step in.) i know that its pretty normal for children to have imaginary friends, i'm just concerned about where her head's at if "he" is so aggressive with her.

[margypops]

What does she do at home for play if there is no TV do you read a lot to her .It is possible that more sociable interaction would help, has she friends who come to play ?

[ifyouseeher]

we do a lot of roleplay, princess dress up etc plus i also do a lot of colours, shapes and numbers games with her. she 'helps' with household chores as well. :)

she has 4 friends who often come to play but i've noticed that she's definitely more comfortable around adults. she can be very shy around children her own age and when they start to invade her personal space she lashes out, which is why i have to watch her vigilantly when she's playing.

[ifyouseeher]

does anyone have any suggestions? today she had several pinch bruises on her arm that match her little fingers that she swears are the work of 'Pinny'. I can't understand why she should be acting out like this. she gets 98% of my time and attention, i'm not sure what else i can do.

[ifyouseeher]

does anyone have any suggestions? today she had several pinch bruises on her arm that match her little fingers that she swears are the work of 'Pinny'. I can't understand why she should be acting out like this. she gets 98% of my time and attention, i'm not sure what else i can do.