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I grew up in East Asia and have also never heard of any kids with imaginary friends. This was something I learned of only after moving to America. What I'm curi
by godot 7y ago
I grew up in East Asia and have also never heard of any kids with imaginary friends. This was something I learned of only after moving to America. What I'm curious is now that I live in America and have a kid, will my kid be likely to have imaginary friend? For example, would school materials or cartoons available here likely lead to someone having imaginary friends, even if in our household we (as Asian parents in America) don't teach (or mention) anything about imaginary friends? (according to the article, 65% of 7 year-old American kids do)
- svachalek 7y agoI grew up in the US and have lived here all my life, and I didn't have an imaginary friend and can't remember any other kids mentioning one. Now I have an only child, which seems like a likely candidate for such a thing, but he's never done it and I've never heard about any of his friends doing it either. So shrug it's one of those things I've always heard is "common and normal" but never actually witnessed.
- asark 7y agoI had some for a brief period. More like characters I imagined interacting with me, and with one another. I could have told you they weren't real, of course. My possibly-incorrect recollection is that I thought them up on a long road trip, and that they rarely "existed" anywhere other than the car. A couple hours-long trips to relatives' houses every year, usually one big vacation involving entire days in the car, maybe one or two other longish drives a year, plus shorter journeys pretty much daily. Wonder if tons of constrained, boring car travel has anything to do with it—if not causing the phenomenon, then encouraging it, anyway.