Invisible Friends Decline in Popularity with UK Children

Remember Bing Bong the imaginary friend from that tear jerking moment in Pixar’s Inside Out? We’re not supposed to. We’re supposed to forget him. But imaginary friends are generally being forgotten about before they are even created.

The eerie things so oft the start of a horror film storyline are on the decline, with just 17 per cent of UK children now having one.

Snazaroo asked 2000 parents about the invented friends to find out how commonplace they were and just what they were getting up to. They found imaginary friends were most likely to appear at the age of three and disappear around the age of seven.

They’re not always people either. A 45 per cent of friends were odd objects including fir cones, balloons and pumpkins. Some were animals instead of people, with cats, dogs and unicorns being favoured. But one thing’s for sure, there are around a million invisible playmates lurking in the homes of children across the country.

Founder and CEO of Fundamentally Children, Dr. Amanda Gummer said: “Imaginative play is hugely bene?cial for children – being able to transport themselves into make-believe worlds with imaginary characters can help them make sense of their world or provide an escape from it (something that supports good mental health in later life). Suspending reality give children the opportunity to think outside of the box and be as creative as they like, with none of the restrictions that are placed on real life activity.

“Parents can help children engage in imaginative play by providing them with a balanced play diet and managing the amount of time children spend as passive receivers of digital content. Tools such as face paints, building blocks, dressing up clothes and play dough can help to stimulate this. Free, child-led play is the super-food of the play diet and can balance the less imaginative play activities that are sometimes found in high tech toys and screen play.”