So thereapos;s this process that children go through during cognitive development called magical thought. This is generally between the ages of two and seven and is marked by difficulty separating fact from fiction and thinking that things like dreams, shadows, and cartoons are all real events. This is often followed by animism, wherein children believe that all objects think, feel, and react the same way they do. So for example if a child had a stuffed animal with a hole in it the child might ask for a band-aid for the toy. During this time children often construct imaginary or pretend friends to interact with.
I must have been a weird kid, cause I skipped the whole imaginary friend thing. I did have a hard time with the whole fantasy/reality thing, but my mom was really good at fixing that. I used to watch Sleeping Beauty a lot but Iapos;d always run out of the room whenever Maleficent, especially in dragon form, came on the screen. One day Mom saw me watching this scene from behind the door and asked me what I was doing. When I told her I was hiding from Maleficent she took my hand, led me over to the TV and tapped on the screen. "See?" she told me, "Itapos;s ok. They canapos;t get out."
From that point on I was absolutely fine. Until the next time they took me to Disneyland. At which point I discovered that my mother had liiiiiiiiiiied1
Well, not really. But I do think itapos;s cool that I had two parents with backgrounds in psychology who understood how to explain things to me in a way I would understand them. My mother knew that it would be easier at that age to explain that what was in the TV couldnapos;t get out than trying to explain that what was in the TV wasnapos;t real.
I thought Santa was real until I was seven, but I never did the imaginary friend thing. I remember getting very frustrated with my parents when my dad told me I had a guardian angel because I couldnapos;t
see her. Did anyone hear have an imaginary friend or other pretend playmate? Because Iapos;ve never actually met anyone who has. Discuss.
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