Erudur
New member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2008
- Messages
- 190
- MBTI Type
- INTJ
I'm an ESTJ and I'm an only child.
I was actually kind of offended by the whole "imaginary friend" thing. Being an only child is not so miserable as to require THAT! (unless the parent-kid relationship is bad... that would suck!) I was never lonely. It was probably my MBTI type that helped me with that, actually - I'm excellent at finding things to do, and I have been since I was very little. (My parents don't remember me being bored EVER until maybe middle school!) I'm positive, though, that my lack of siblings is the reason why I score so low on E. I was so self-reliant that I often forgot the concept of "hanging out with friends". And I wasn't so sad about it, either! Not that I disliked being with friends - it was fun... well, hopefully other only children know what I'm talking about.
I do express my emotions very easily, but that certainly doesn't come from prior success with tantrums. My parents had no tolerance for that - I was not a spoiled kid.
The tantrum thing would indeed be variable based on parenting styles. But what would be common is having the undivided (or less divided) attention of the parents and probably having your feelings acknowledged (either positively or negatively).
I am guessing that N Onlies would be much more likely to have imaginary friends than S Onlies.
I didn't have imaginary friends, but my brother and I (both Onlys), when we did play together would often create imaginary worlds for our stuffed animals to have adventures in. Its almost like we were playing alone with each other.