In the early 90s, (when I single.. young and vibrant!!) I watched this movie featuring my favorite (though a shortie) hero.. Robert Downey Jr. He was an adult with 4 imaginery friends who followed him from his childhood. Can't remember the title of the movie. But at that time I thought.. hmmm .. imaginery friends.. crap! I don't remember having any. Must be another American syndrome!
But when I have kids... oh la la.. believe it or not.. EACH of them have their own favorite "friend". I was kinda scared then thinking that my first-born was actually seeing things... but sharing this with my sisters who already had kids at the time, I was surprised to know that having imaginery friend is a normal thing.
This imaginery friend(s) would have name(s), they would play together, talk to each other (though you can only hear your kid talking).. they would have requests.. you will have to prepare food for them, or bathe them or do whatever you do to your kids. It's kind of fun. It's pretty safe (I guess) to do this as long as you know how to draw the line. I "entertain" all my kids imaginery friends as I believe it's good for their creative imagination, communication, learning and social skills. Sounds weird huh..
I can't remember the two older boys' friends name as it was quite some time ago. But Syasya's was "KOFU" (beats me how this came about).. she had it for quite some time at 3yrs old. KOFU somehow dissapear as she turned 4. She said she left KOFU behind at Jeddah airport on the way back from our trip there. Poor KOFU.
Omar has just started having his "friends" some time this week. Quite a number of them by the name of "oh-oh, ah-ah, chi-chi, aeh-aeh" .. the list can go on whenever he likes. How do I know these friends? Bcos if I ask him to do something (i.e eat or sleep) then he would ask if all of these friends are doing the same thing! Cute huh!
Here's a good article : http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-467097/Why-having-imaginary-friend-good-children.html.
Another one : http://parenting.families.com/blog/imaginery-friends
3 comments:
hmmm... i have had many "imaginary friends" as well when I was a young kid. i remember talking to my stuffed doreamon toy and many others.
soon...it will be time for me to watch out on my daughter's ones, i guess. haha...
never had this experience with my kids. I hope they still grow up to be imaginative and creative as well.
Hmm.. either my kids are imginative or they lack parental attention that they have to resort to imaginery friends!
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