What do you do when your child claims to have an invisible friend?

Question

You hear your child talking in his room; you go in and ask him who he is talking to. He says “it’s Jack”, you ask him who's Jack.
He says “Jack is my buddy”.
You ask him where Jack is
He says “Jack is over there”, points to a chair, the chair is empty.
You realise that your child believes he has an invisible companion
What do you do.?

Answer 1

i would think that he's messing with me, making fun of me and annoying me.

Answer 2

The child has created an invisible companion. Whether or not he also hallucinates (i.e., imagines) a physical presence, something he can describe in material terms, is partly due to the fact that the difference between the shared experience adults call "reality" and the complex stuff going on inside a kids head is not easy to work out. They don't know, at first, that adults cannot perceive the ghosts and monsters and playmates and angels and gnomes and . . . six-foot white rabbits? Be comforted that he's imagining a friend and not an enemy.

One of the saddest things we do as we grow up is learn to call "real" only that which other people can see, too.

Answer 3

Watch the movie Drop Dead Fred. Imaginary friends are part of childhood. Especially if the child is an only child. Encourage it. It's good for a child's mind to imagine. Quite frankly, these days, it's hard for kids to do that with all the media outlets we have.
So pull up a chair and see if Jack and your child want to play. It's can actually be quite amusing. Especially when something is broken or missing and Jack did it.

Answer 4

Well, it all depends. Ask him what Jack is. Ask him if Jack's always nice, or if Jack can sometimes be not-so-nice, etc. If Jack's always nice and is some outrageous, colorful thing or a normal little boy, then most likely it's an imaginary friend, and he'll grow out of it. But if it's something that you can find a definition of, like a tanuki, etc, and it acts like a real person and doesn't always agree with your kid, then it's not an imaginary friend; it's most likely something your child can see that you can't. Telling him to shun it would make him lose that gift, and unless you're afraid of the consequences of him seeing things other people can't, you shouldn't do it. But most people tend to think that seeing things is a bad thing, so they force their children to drop it; their children therefore lose the ability to converse with spirits and mystical things, because they lose their belief in them.

Just food for thought; it's up to you.

Answer 5

I'd be asking him what Jack looks like in full description. I would ask him his age, and whether he is always around, or does he just appear? I would not ask leading questions, but keep it simple. I would also take into consideration of the child's age, how long has his friend been visiting, and what his friend wants. For the most part you will be able to confirm that your child does indeed have an imaginary friend. Should your child go into detail, smell, color, mood, facial features, you have something else entirely upon your hands, and it is your duty as a parent to check it out. It could be damn near anything............just check it out.

Answer 6

It's a natural part of growing up. It is a child's way of understanding the nature of relationships. An invisible friend enables them to form a relationship over which they have significant control. They are free to introduce crises but mostly the child uses the invisible friend as a means of constructing relationships with the real world. When the child reaches a certain level of security, associated with a degree of self-confidence in having real relationships with people and the world, the invisible friend will disappear into disuse. But it serves a purpose to the infant mind on its way to adulthood.
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Answer 7

I would introduce myself to Jack have a small talk with Jack and tell my son/daughter that Jack as told you that he needs to move out of town with his family and to tell your child that Jack said he/she should ask his/her mom or dad to take him/her where he/she can really find kids to play with. Tell him/her that Jack will miss him/her but he must go .

At times when we are lonely we wish to have someone to talk to so the invisible friend is created !

Answer 8

Peace be with you.
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man (death) he walks in dry places (no living water or light) seeking rest (to be cared for by Jesus) and findeth none. He says to himself I will go back to my house from which I came out (his dead body). but when he gets there he finds that it has been swept (cleaned) emptied (all knowledge removed) and garnished (made male or female), but with him he takes 7 other spirits more wicked then himself, and there they enter (at the baby's first breath) and dwell therein. And the last state of the person is worse then the first (evil child).

The above passage is from the 4 Gospels, the Word of God. Now read the story of Lazarus and the rich man, and the Lazarus that died and was buried for 4 days. These are the same story, except one is physical and one is spiritual.

Spiritual beings are privy to things of the physical world, but physical beings are not privy to spiritual things.

If you child or anyone hears voices, the voice comes from one or all of the 7 other spirits. Jesus casted out uncleaned and evil spirit
from many. Read the Gospels

Answer 9

What makes you think Jack isn't real?

Children keep proving, very single day, that they're way smarter than adults about a great many things.

What worries me more, is that you're more concerned about your child having an "invisible friend" than you are about the fact that a strange man may or may not be hovering over your child. I would like to remind you that "invisible friends" are not always friendly.

Answer 10

You acknowledge that Jack is your child's invisible friend and let it go at that. You don't encourage "Jack," but you don't discourage Jack either.

This too will come to pass.

Answer 11

My son had a friend who he called Mr. Bungy, and told me that he looked like an old man with a beard and a hat like a sailor's hat. He had this invisible friend for about three years starting at about three to six. I was a little worried and prayed about it and then just simply did nothing, as though he was perfectly normal and it was perfectly normal to have an invisible friend. One day I noticed that he wasn't talking about or to Mr. Bungy anymore and asked him about it. He told me that Mr. Bungy told him that he had to go away and said goodbye. I asked him if He missed Mr. Bungy and he said no and that was that.