
The Power of Magical Thinking - robg
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703344704574610002061841322.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth
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Tichy
"If the child already has an imaginary friend"

Wouldn't that make the child schizophrenic? I have never experienced children
having imaginary friends - is that a normal thing to have?

Also, I don't see why imagination should also require _belief_ in imaginary
things.

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pkaler
I used to talk to my WWE (WWF back then), GI Joe, and Transformer action
figures. As a 5 year old kid, you realize that they aren't real. But you don't
think that talking to them is anything out of the ordinary.

My guess is that kids talk to imaginary friends because talking is so new and
they just learned how to talk so they want to do it all of the time.

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dkarl
_As a 5 year old kid, you realize that they aren't real._

I've seen a lot of parents go a little cuckoo with fear and frustration
because they don't understand that. The kids get frustrated and stubborn
because the adults don't get that it's very important to _pretend_ that
they're real. Kids can go a little overboard with the inconvenience and even
danger their fantasies impose on them, but they know what's real and what's
not. Their crazy parents don't give a crap about anything except their
overblown fear that their kid is suffering from some delayed or derailed
development that will affect their SAT scores someday.

There are also parents who are fine indulging their kids' whims except where
it involves fantasy. They'll smuggle a ziploc bag of corn into a restaurant
because their kid won't eat mac and cheese without it (seen it happen), but
they'll yell at the same kid if she takes an extra twenty seconds helping an
invisible rabbit into the minivan after dinner.

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Retric
I wonder how much of the increase in Santa belief between 5 and 7 relates to
them understand the should lie when asked that question? Extremely young
children tend to be fairly direct, but 7yo are wiling to play make believe for
attention.

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Retric
ops, 3 and 5 not 5 and 7.

