Children having imaginary friends

[Blzer]

To the OS parents out there, I wanted to know what your tolerance level was with something like this.

I'm not currently experiencing a child with this, but I was skipping through channels and ran across the film Hide & Seek, and it made me think of that.

I remember when my sister had an imaginary friend. It didn't last long at all, and it also wasn't very serious. I think I just recall my older sister and I ganged up on her a little bit to dispute the fact that such a thing could exist ("sitting on where he was sitting" in the car, stuff like that). My mom and dad would always ask to not ridicule her like that or whatever, so obviously they were fine with letting it run its course.

Given the more "serious" cases, I wondered what parents would do/have done to remedy the situation... either because you want that child (no matter how young) to always interact with real people, or you think they are simply getting too old to have imaginary friends, or any other reason. I hate to delve into the psychological stuff with children, but if it's persistent, I don't know what further measures should be taken for something that conditionally worsens. Simply put, there is a time when the line is drawn.

Any potential future advice for such a scenario? Anybody experience light or heavy examples of children with imaginary friends?

[Skyboxer]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

My daughters had some imaginary friends. They eventually grew out of it.
Never really gave it a lot of thought as kids simply do that.
Once they get to the age of having friends over or more opportunity to interact with others, the iFriends will eventually go.

Not sure what to say if they don't eventually go but that timeline is usually the time to see and observe if they do go away. I'd say not to force the issue at that time and just see if they eventually disappear.

[dickey1331]

I had an imaginary friend. My parents were cool with it. I don't see a problem with it unless you are like in high school or something like that.

[Redacted01]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

My daughters had some imaginary friends. They eventually grew out of it.
Never really gave it a lot of thought as kids simply do that.
Once they get to the age of having friends over or more opportunity to interact with others, the iFriends will eventually go.

Not sure what to say if they don't eventually go but that timeline is usually the time to see and observe if they do go away. I'd say not to force the issue at that time and just see if they eventually disappear.

So the "i" in Apple products stands for imaginary? It all makes sense now! I knew my friends are crazy and now I can connect the dots.

I went through the imaginary phase when I was around 5-6. Neighborhood didn't have many kids; everyone was moving out. I moved before 2nd grade and I can't recall ever having one after that. It's completely normal at that age. Anyone that tries to stop it, well, I guess they were a boring an unimaginative child.

[KingV2k3]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

I don't see a problem with it unless you are like in high school or something like that.

Insert Manti Te'o joke HERE:

[BurghFan]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

I had an imaginary friend named Jack when I was in preschool or thereabout. My grandma and aunts on my moms side make it a point to remind me of this, though I'm not sure if it's because of the fact that I had an imaginary friend or the fact that I have absolutely no recollection of having had one despite the fact that I remember pretty much everything else.

[Segagendude]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

"In my day", it was perfectly normal to have an imaginary friend and/or pet.

Nowadays, someone's likely to prescribe meds for the kid, thinking they have some mental disorder.

Sad....

[Skyboxer]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

"In my day", it was perfectly normal to have an imaginary friend and/or pet.

Nowadays, someone's likely to prescribe meds for the kid, thinking they have some mental disorder.

Sad....

I had a whole thought process on this that I decided to not delve into as I felt it may lead to issues eventually.
Totally agree though.

[kingkilla56]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

I never had one but I imagine you grow out of these things in due time. If I had a kid with an imaginary friend I would play along as best I could but once they got well into grade school, they better be over it.

[SPTO]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

It's a natural part of growing up, having imaginary friends isn't really a cause for alarm and it fosters imagination etc etc. Kids usually go through it for a year or so and then they start meeting kids their age and the imaginary friend slips away into the ether.

I agree on the whole "nowadays parents would think there's something wrong" crap but as skyboxer said, it's better off left alone here.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

Nothing wrong with it. I don't think I ever created one though, lol.

[Cyros]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

[Blzer]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

It's a natural part of growing up, having imaginary friends isn't really a cause for alarm and it fosters imagination etc etc. Kids usually go through it for a year or so and then they start meeting kids their age and the imaginary friend slips away into the ether.

I agree on the whole "nowadays parents would think there's something wrong" crap but as skyboxer said, it's better off left alone here.

I guess I'm mostly asking because I was thinking more like the kid in the movie Hide & Seek (though, as I said... kind of a different scenario with that one). If things start happening around you where the kid is blaming the imaginary friend, you can think of three things that may possibly be. The first one everyone would love to go to is tell the kid that there is no friend.

I wondered how long people "play along" with it before it kind of takes off in an extreme direction or it just overstays its welcome.

[daflyboys]

Re: Children having imaginary friends

As a child: sign of intelligence.

As an adult: sign of psychosis!

[ScoobySnax]

Nothing wrong with it at all. I hope my kids' imaginations will run wild! Agreed that the imaginary friends needs to stop right around the start of grade school though.