Most children have imaginary friends, I know I did. I never had that one person who was always around me and who I introduced to my parents. I never had "Bob" who would have his own seat at the dinner table. What I would do however is play constant games all alone, or at least that's what it looked like. I am an only child so I really had no choice but to pretend others were playing with me. My parents tell me that they would go out onto our back deck and look down at me making mud cakes and inventing new recipes with sticks, acorns, and leaves all the while talking away to multiple guests. Children have the most vivid imaginations, add that with a care free attitude regarding what others may think of you and you have the essence of creativity and expression. We seem to loose some of this as we get older but maybe we can have an outlet in fiction. We still want to explore different worlds and meet new people. Maybe we still crave to pretend to be anyone we want, and we can do that while immersed in some sort of fictions such as books, television, video games, and movies. It is interesting to think back to when you stopped having those pretend friends to play with. There must have been a point where you either did not feel the need to have them anymore or you were embarrassed out of doing it. Is there a specific time in our lives where we lose this ability to pretend freely? Maybe it is just shaped to fit our age an maturity level, maybe watching fiction is the grown up version is playing with imaginary friends.
Question: Do you remember starting to grow out of the "having imaginary friends phase?"
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