Parents: Supporting kids' gifts vs. feeding imaginations?

[Jason S]

I've got a young daughter with an old soul and an active imagination. Like many others, she has a team of imaginery friends who often come to visit. Over time, my wife and I have noticed that one of her friends is not like the others: this friend comes and go as she pleases, walks through walls/vanishes, can see and respond to others in the house, and talks in her own "voice." My daughter will very casually talk about how this friend is an angel who comes to visit at night, and consistently acknowledges that all her friends are figments of her imagination except for this one, who is her own person (even though she is still invisible to everyone else).

This "friend" loves our family (we laugh a lot), and has started bringing others along (4 others so far that I am aware of).

If my daughter has a gift, I don't want to squash it--what a wonderful thing! But at the same time, I don't want to make her feel like she needs to make things up to appease me. There are other issues at play here, too... like who is this presence and who are the others? Is this an angelic presence or ghost who needs help? Etc.

My wife and I are treading lightly here... it's like looking at one of those 3D computer images together, and having our daughter say, "Oh, I can see it, it's an angel!" while we can't confirm or disconfirm because we can't see it. It can be a little unnerving!

Anyone have any insights or suggestions?

[Erin Pavlina]

Determining it's nature is probably important. You want to know if this is a high vibrational being or a low vibrational being. Under what circumstances does your daughter see the entity? While she is happy or while she is sad or angry? Can she describe it's physical image? What sorts of things does the entity say to her? Those will all provide clues as to its nature. Ask her and get back to us.

[Jason S]

My daughter's friend first started showing up at night after she would get into bed. My daughter would see her coming by the old-fashioned lantern she carries. The friend--who my daughter has named Please--then started coming in the mornings, too, which caused my daughter to start sleeping with her door open, to make it easier for Please to come in. Sometimes Please brings others with her--her "sister," "brother," and "parents." I'll explain the quotes in a minute.

Since we started talking about Please, Please shows up more regularly, especially if I'm around--my daughter will sometimes ask her to wait and then she'll come get me. We play the "Can Daddy see Please?" game. (So far, no dice...)

Please generally shows up when we're laughing and having fun. She watches and sometimes plays jokes on me... we have plenty of Abbott and Costello moments b/c of her name: my daughter will ask me, "Please throw me on the bean bag... No, I mean Daddy, will you please throw me?" Then I ask if Please is here, and my daughter starts laughing hysterically because Please has been standing right next to me. I always go with it.

My daughter has a very clear description of Please physically. We also think she's from Mississippi or Chicago. When Please started showing up, my daughter became petrified that the bath would overflow, and every night she would freak when we filled it up. One night when I gave her a hug to soothe her, I was overcome by an image like we saw on the news after Katrina--an entire town, submerged to the rooftops. I asked her to describe what she thought would happen if we let the bath run too long... one guess what image she described. Since then, her fear has subsided, and in fact she's grown more indepent in other ways recently as well.

I have no idea who Please's "family" is. My daughter gives specific and consistent descriptions of each member. They are different races and possibly represent different time periods, but my daughter is very clear about referring to them as sister/brother/mom/dad.

I've welcomed them all into our home--on the condition that they laugh and play with us and keep us all protected while they're here. Please seems to have been lost... for awhile she was "in space" and couldn't find her family, but now she's happy because "she found them" and because she loves hanging out with us.

[Adrienne]

So far it sounds pretty healthy. Please isn't telling her to eat rat posion or set the house on fire. It sounds like Please is just having fun and being with your family.

As long as the tone stays that way, i dont see any warning flags from what you have shared.

Please sounds like a lot of fun.

Adrienne

[Lallymac]

My youngest daughter (12 now) had a 'magareenie' friend when she was little, called Nettia. My older daughter and I saw her a few times. Nettia also had a brother Johnathen, who got introduced to unsuspecting visitors. Nettia was shy. Two of my sisters also imaginary friends when they were younger who were included in our busy household for a few years. My mum just accepted it as normal with no fuss and I took her lead.
My youngest sister called her imaginary friend 'Wossle' and my Grandmother told us a few years ago in a reading that Wossle was a friend of my Dad's who had died of scarlet fever when he was 7-8. Dad said he remembered the kid who died but couldn't remember his name.
My daughter told me last year that she'd 'seen' Nettia and her Grandma all day at school. She said it was like they were the same person. She hadn't mentioned Nettia for years. Her Grandma died a couple of months after she was born. Nettia disappeared when Sophie was about 4-5.
I've never thought of them as guides as they don't seem to impart any wisdom but more like playmates.
My Irish Catholic sister-in-law freaked when her son started talking to a friend she couldn't see and rushed him off the a psychiatrist. When she told us we told her about the others and said it was quite normal. She blamed my brother for having a wierd freaky family. But now he's older she's asking if I think he could be like me.
Lallymac