Parents of Schoolgoers  Discussion Forum

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 replied. 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 we are at home. Amy replied. 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 explaination for imaginary friends? I mean, maybe they' re not so imaginary. My neice through marriage, who is 8 now, had one for a long time since she was 3. When my husband asked what his name was she said \" Charlie\" . When he told her dad, he about dropped. His favorite uncle' s name is Charlie, and he had passed. She even described him quite well. Now, I don' t believe in all this paranormal stuff, but it is something to think about right? Or could that have been a coincidence? And now that my son is 3 and still has this \" friend\" I' m still kind of questioning it. Help!!! Thanks, Amy. Kary Hernandez replied. My daughter is 5 years old and an only child. She has at least 8 imaginary friends. I was a little worried at first about this because she has has them since about age 3 and she keeps getting more and more imaginary friends. But aftre reading this article it made me feel a little better knowing that this was a normal faze. Thank you! tanu replied. I found your description of imaginary friends very interesting but is there any cross cultural data actually available on this or your description is purely based on the western concept? What I mean is, is the prevelance of this phenomenon as common inasian children as in western? Madhuri replied. Even I had an imaginary friend when I was small, since I was the only child at home.