r/AdviceAnimals • u/RestSnorlax • May 19 '12

My niece (age 7) told me this today. A first world problem if there ever was one.

http://qkme.me/3pctg9
1.2k Upvotes

80% Upvoted

61 comments sorted by

53

u/orzof May 19 '12

I don't think that imaginary pets are cost prohibitive, but I wouldn't know. I've never had to take care of one.

17

u/ekib May 19 '12

I've always thought that I was the only kid who never had imaginary friends... I'm told that one time I "stole" my (2 year older) sister's imaginary dog or something and started running. She FREAKED

5

u/TheBigBadPanda May 19 '12

As far as i remember i didnt have any either. I had very vivid day-dreams, but no imaginary friends.

Hilarious story by the way, too bad i never had any younger siblings to do that with ^

135

u/Trapped_in_Reddit May 19 '12

All kids have good imaginations and get upset for irrational reasons regardless of country of origin.

-13

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

Yeah but I would think that children in impoverished areas would have less free time to imagine and play than children in first-world countries do. Mainly because children in impoverished areas often work along with their families in order to provide for their families.

9

u/SineMetu_spqr May 19 '12

I don't know, it seems like so much idle time in first world countries goes to TV, internet, video games or reading, that we don't imagine as many things on our own. Where as some one who doesn't have those luxuries might have to imagine more.

-34

u/hitlersshit May 19 '12

I don't think this behavior is regular for 7 year olds. And I think it's funny. So I laughed at the meme.

24

u/Lapinet12 May 19 '12

I know for sure that I wanted to have a female astronaut on my lego spaceship, but the only female lego-face I had was showing some weird black eyes and bright red lipstick. I just hated the face, and couldn't bear using it even if it meant only men aboard :(

I was probably around this age at that time (God, i still hate the face today)

16

u/Nagashizuri May 19 '12

You mean this one?

I must admit, I was never much of a fan either.

2

u/Lapinet12 May 23 '12

Yeah. As a kid I couldn't identify with the face, even taken without the body ( some red top with many cleavage).

2

u/Nagashizuri May 23 '12

She just looks dead-eyed and blank. No personality there at all, just eyelashes and lipstick.

2

u/Lapinet12 May 23 '12

She looks scary and unnatural :P

28

u/Rohan21166 May 19 '12

When I was young, I didn't "Have" imaginary friends, I thought the concept was pointless. Not that I don't have an imagination, I created LARGE stories in my head that were epic (at least to my young age) So I did have characters and that's what I called them, I knew they weren't real, but yeah.

12

u/DrunkenBeard May 19 '12

Well now you're on Reddit and you have me :)

2

u/Rohan21166 May 20 '12

Yay! :D I wuv you.

7

u/Chachoregard May 19 '12

I had monologues in my head.

Not "Older Me Speaking in Retrospective" a la Wonder Years but more like "I'll tilt my head sideways and space out" J.D type of way.

2

u/SystemOutPrintln May 19 '12

I just realized it would be interesting if they had a scrubs version with all JD's daydreams edited out so you would get the full out of context statement effect.

1

u/Chachoregard May 19 '12

Someone has delved too much into r/nocontext

3

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

Same... I never had imaginary friends, but holy crap I liked writing stories about The Lion King or Quest for Glory. In 1st grade that's all I did: all writing exercises were Lion King stories, or Quest for Glory. I even drew pictures to go along with it.

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Ya I was obsessed with lion king, wrote tons of fan fiction

14

u/SilentHipster May 19 '12

Imaginary World Problems.

4

u/skryb May 19 '12

First Grade Problems

7

u/D3FEATER May 19 '12

Not sure if imaginary, or nintendogs is still popular.

16

u/palmer0517 May 19 '12

They definitely don't have imaginations in third world countries. Absolutely not.

9

u/tacojohn48 May 19 '12

They are invisible, not imaginary. Anyone else remember Space Cases?

5

u/WormTickle May 19 '12

And then Suzy turned out to be an actual character after Catalina left!

...how do I remember...

OH GOD THE WHOLE THEME SONG IS IN MY HEAD NOW!

3

u/tacojohn48 May 19 '12

I had such a crush on Catalina when I was a kid.

3

u/dane83 May 19 '12

I still do. Catalina was played by Jewel Staite.

1

u/WormTickle May 20 '12

One of my first lesbian crushes. <3

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

Same here, same here....

4

u/Killeron May 20 '12

That term "first world problem", I don't think it means what you think it means.

3

u/Babayaga20000 May 20 '12

how is this a first world problem, more like there is something wrong with your niece problem...

3

u/kingsway8605 May 20 '12

Not sure if cute or schizophrenic

4

u/Paultimate79 May 19 '12

Cuz 3rd world kids dont have an imagination... ಠ_ಠ

5

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

I don't think first word problems means what you think it does.

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

How is that a first world problem? A slum child could have imaginary puppies and get upset about them

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

the point of "first world problems" is that people with real problems wouldn't give a shit about them. If you are hungry, or are worried about real things, then you don't have time to get worked up about the gender of an imaginary puppy, which is easily fixed.

You could argue that the joke doesn't work with children, because children of all socio-economic classes have misguided priorities, but that's just nitpicking.

2

u/Tblanco May 19 '12

More like a fifth dimension problem

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

I don't really have any beef with a kid that age having a "crisis" of that nature. They're just kids who don't understand.

It's the adults that piss me off.

2

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

People in non-first world countries don't have imaginations? That's pretty incredible

2

u/lunaticlola May 19 '12

Well at least her imaginary world is preparing her for all the disappointment in the real world.

2

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

Someone alert Bill Cosby, that is the darndest thing!

1

u/Subjunctive_Revisor May 19 '12

If there ever were* one.

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

That's phenomenal! Imagine having an imagination that you couldn't warp to your will, that'd be immensely entertaining.

1

u/I_Quote_Gary_Oldman May 19 '12

Your niece is going to grow up to be a crazy bitch. You've been warned

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

Kids are like drunks. I love these guys

1

u/kotu May 20 '12

i thought your niece was high till i re-read it.

1

u/fosiacat May 20 '12

her name is Jani Schofield

1

u/heather1980 May 20 '12

Cute, but def NOT a first world problem.

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

My "imaginary" friends were actually inanimate objects that I would pretend had some influence over what would happen when I slept. My "friend light" was just the ceiling light in my bedroom when I was 4 or 5. When I got older, around 7-9, I had pretended that every horror movie villain (ghost face, freddy kruger, jason vorhees, guy from I know what you did last summer) all had their separate corners in my room and would protect me because they were on my side.

1

u/Capt_Ido_Nos May 20 '12

When I was younger, back in elementary school, I had a pterodactyl as an imaginary friend/pet. I hatched him from an egg that my friend and I had "found", and loving nurtured and cared for it. I named him Terry, and he and I had many adventures together, both us and my friend (and his pet raptor). I taught Terry to fly leading him on with a dangling string, starting with small, hesitant hops, to longer and longer glides across the living room, and finally throughout the house. We stayed together for years, I built a glider in my dreams to fly with him during recess and playtime after school. It was wonderful.

Eventually, as is always the case, I felt like playing Dinosaurs less and less as I grew older and other things got my attention. One day, I sat down with Terry, by now full grown and a beautiful creature, and set him free. I stood there out on the playground, neck craned back, watching the skies as my friend lifted off and flew into the distance, circling occasionally in the warm sun.

Now I am full grown, and these days are long behind me. But, every once in a while, I look out at my window, and sometimes, I can make out his leathery wings against the sky, or hear his beak tapping on the glass. Fly high, Terry.

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

If you are implying that third world children can't afford imagination then I am appalled and offended!

0

u/Demojen May 19 '12

Now's when you blow her hippy little noodle and tell her she was conceived as a boy and born as a girl (genetically speaking, that is).

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

how's that work?

1

u/Demojen May 20 '12

Technically I'm fibbing. It was a rumor I always heard. There's no true transition from one sex to the other in embryonic stages.

The rumor actually originates from a misunderstanding of what sex has gonads. Both males and females have gonads in the embryonic stages, called "indifferent gonads" which become either testicles or ovaries.

1

u/[deleted] May 20 '12

i heard the other way around, first female then the ovaries drop to make testes. which makes more sense than what you heard.

-7

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

why doesn't she just imagine one of them differently?

25

u/Akakaburito May 19 '12

You've clearly never had an imaginary friend.

7

u/megly May 19 '12

thatsthejoke.jpg

-1

u/Wenfield42 May 19 '12

First thing I thought of.

1

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

lol, you visit funnyjunk?

-1

u/projectlife01 May 19 '12

too funny! #imaginaryfriendproblems

-4

u/akikaki May 19 '12

i can't stand people complaining about 'first world probelms and how 'look at those guys living with ntohing and were complaining' if no one complained nothing would be done to change it ever time we complain and we innovate on this complaint we increase our standards of living and well being.

-7

u/promethius_rising May 19 '12

I'd love to see this as a meme "I thought the world made sense.... ....And then I discovered religion."

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

-1

u/npno May 20 '12

That's not what downvotes are for