Kids at that age only see good/evil extremes. As they start to see shades of grey and realize that most people (and characters) fall somewhere in the grey area, the fascination with villains should dwindle a bit. For right now, it’s a great way to pretend to do bad things, reinforcing good behavior in the real world.

Normal. Healthy, actually. Don’t worry. It’s fun to be somebody totally different when engaging in pretend play. Fun to watch shows from that perspective too.

Just keep him well-rounded. Art supplies, paper airplanes, rockets, basketball, golf, building with magnatiles/Keva, dominoes, marble runs, volcanoes, and space are all big hits with my 6 yr old boy too.

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for normal. Even my daughter loves "bad guys" -- she pretends to be bad guys too. She freaking loves Darth Vader.

My 5 year old DD wants to go as Pennywise for Halloween next year. An older cousin dressed up like him this past year and she saw the (terrifying) pictures and LOVED IT. She was a unicorn this year, for reference. She now asks a lot of questions about deranged clowns living in the sewers that I can only hope she is not asking at school.

I think MY discomfort with her talking about this has made it even more thrilling for her. So I'm trying to be a little more "oh that's nice dear" when she talks about it.

I say normal too. My son is now 10 and did the same thing. We weren’t too worried - some friends did the same. Sometimes I still see him pretend playing this way in the house by himself but among friends it’s all sports.

Put him in some activities with other kids his age so he can get out of the fantasy world and interact with kids his age.