For me, it was reality though and not imagination.
When my daughter was young, she would only suck her left thumb and she wanted to rub our earlobes. It drove my ex-wife nuts as it would hurt in short order.
I’d lay there and let my daughter rub my earlobe with her right hand while she was sucking her thumb. Think 3, 4, 5, 6 years old.
Why did I do that when it hurt?
I knew time would fly and that I’d give anything to go back to that time again and I would in a heartbeat as I’m almost 60 years old now and she is closer to 30 than 25 herself now.
It made my daughter feel good. She was comfortable and trying to fall asleep. There were times when I was sitting on the couch and she’d crawl up on my stomach and chest to do that. She’d put her head down on my upper chest and shoulder area, suck her left thumb and rub my earlobe with her right hand.
There was no way I was going to tell her no…
So that is how or why I brought up having one’s earlobe rubbed over and over for a while…
Back to your comment though. I initially answered like I did to you and another in the thread due to what you said in another thread a bit before making this thread.
You said:
Reading what you said in that comment is why I replied about doing things too long, too often or too roughly.