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You are here : home > Raising Children > Childhood Concerns > Imaginary Friend

Imaginary Friend

Imaginary Friend

Most young children have imaginary friends. For a child, an imaginary friend is a good companion who accepts all his thoughts. An imaginary friend is good for healthy development of the child. A child feels free in expressing his thoughts in front of this friend.

Anita sat outside her house and talked with Rita. Rita was a 7-year-old girl that Anita played, ate and read with. However, Rita was not an ordinary girl, she was an imaginary friend that Anita created. One morning Anita's mom saw Anita talking to herself and her mom asked Anita whom she was talking to. Anita introduced her mom to Rita and her mom became very worried.

Why do children have imaginary friends?

At the age of three, your child's imagination will become very active and you should not be surprised if he has an imaginary friend. Your child may have an imaginary friend because he might be lonely, since he may not have started school and is looking for companionship. Having imaginary friends is his way of getting over the loneliness. Your child might also want control and this is one way with which your child will have full control. He might also have an imaginary friend because he knows that his imaginary friend will accept his thoughts and ideas. Kids have a hard time expressing themselves because they do not know how people will react to them, but their imaginary friends will always react in a positive manner. However, if your child prefers to play with his imaginary friend when he has the option to play with other real friends, you should definitely look into the matter.

Imaginary friends will help your child

Imaginary friends will help your child practice all the manners he has learnt. He will practice sharing and practice talking in an appropriate manner. These are important skills that your child needs to practice. According to your child, his imaginary friend is also helping him to build his self-confidence, since his imaginary friend will listen to everything he has to say. Your child's imaginary friend allows your child to display his emotions and see his feelings. For example, if your child is afraid of cats, he might claim that his imaginary friend is afraid of cats. This is a way that your child will demonstrate to himself how he feels and thinks. You may be surprised, but there are many positive effects that imaginary friends will have on your child.

What you can do as a parent to help?

As a parent you should not ask about your child's imaginary friend if he does not mention it to you. If your child does tell you about his imaginary friend, you should be supportive of it. Do not include his imaginary friend in activities unless your child says to. Also remember that if your child asks you to play with him and his imaginary friend, you should play, but let your child direct the way of playing. However, you should not allow your child to blame his imaginary friend for the things your child does himself. For example if he has not put away his toys and blames his imaginary friend for that; you should try to put a stop to it. Until about the age of five, the line between fantasy and reality is not clear and some children still have imaginary friends at the age of 10. Most of all as a parent you should not encourage imaginary friends, but should accept them.

Imaginary friends are something that many children have. The idea of having imaginary friends is part of a child's healthy development. Your child has a very vivid imagination and he enjoys playing with imaginary people. Thus, you should allow him to play with his imaginary friends and help him through one of the many phases he will go through as a child.




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Geisha Jobs
Geisha Jobs.11 years ago
so you have mentioned that having an imaginary friend helps a kid but I fail to understand how. Please explain me in detail.
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Maithi Rachis
Maithi Rachis.11 years ago
same case with me but its with my son. HE seems to love to play outdoor games with his imaginary friend. This behaviour of him is causing embarrassment but he is not able to understand.
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Diana Hewit
Diana Hewit.11 years ago
My daughter seems to be infatuated with an imaginary friend. she always speaks with her, plays with her and does everything with her. I think this behaviour of hers is going over the top. How to help her.
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Discussion Forum - Recent Posts
Why do children have imaginary friends. At the age of three, your child's imagination will become very active and you should not be surprised if he has an imaginary friend. Your child may have an imaginary friend because he might be lonely, since he may not have started school and is looking for companionship. Having imaginary friends is his way of getting over the loneliness. Your child might also want control and this is one way with which your child will have full control. But in a way imaginary friends can help your child. They will learn sharing, caring and above all have huge imagination power! Do you as a parent think that imaginary friend is good for your child. Tell us in what way will you help your child if he has an imaginary friend.
dana A dana A
My daughter is 2 and already has an imaginary friend. She is not an only child, but my other child 16 and not home a lot. She is also in a preschool program, but only brings up her " friend" when w...
read reply
Aira Planting Aira Planting
Hi
My name is Aira Planting and I work within the development department at North One Television in London. North One Television is one of Britain' s leading independent television production compa...
read reply
Amy Amy
My son is 3 and has had an imaginary friend for a long time now. He is an only child, but he is surrounded by tons of other kids. I was wondering, do you believe that there could be another explainati...
read reply
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