Ring Around the Rosie: 5 Ways to Foster Friendship in Your Children
By: Naomi Shaw
Friends are one of the biggest joys in life. They are people you can have fun with, count on, and share yourself with. What would the world be without friendship?
As a parent, you’re aware of the value of friendship, and you want nothing more than to foster the development and appreciation of these special bonds between your children and others. Believe it or not, you actually play a big role in the successful development of friendships among your children and their peers. After all, your kids look to you as a role model, and to learn almost everything, including how to make friends.
Here are some ways that you can help your kids step outside themselves, mix and mingle with others, and form the bonds of friendship.
Read Books
Books are one of the most powerful guides for helping your kids make friends. From a very early age, read your children books about friendship. Relate the books to them, and discuss the value of friendship. You will be surprised to see how your children use the techniques they pick up from these books and apply them to their own lives.
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Model
Without a doubt, you are your child’s biggest role model. She will look to you for everything – including how to make friends. Show your children how to successfully make friends through modeling. Be friendly to others, introduce yourself to others and so forth. Your children will watch your moves, pick them up, and apply them to her own friendship making.
Encourage
Offer your children opportunities to get involved with their peers. Bring them on playdates, take them to locations where other children play, and prompt your kids to join social groups that may interest them.
The more you present children with opportunities to interact with others, the more they will have the opportunity to develop their social skills and make new friends. As they get involved with other children, they’ll become more comfortable in their friendship-making ability.
Promote Sensitivity
Remind your children that everyone person is different. Let them know that just because someone may look or act differently, it doesn’t mean that they should avoid extending their friendship. Inform them that those who are different from them have a lot to offer. Promoting sensitivity will allow children learn how to appreciate those who are different from them.
Teach Attentiveness
Children, especially the very young, are the center of their own universe. They often don’t understand that other people have their own, individual needs, and that their needs can’t always come first.
Teach your children how to acknowledge and be attentive to other people’s needs. For example, explain that friends don’t always want to do the same things and that this is okay. You don’t have to want to do the same things all the time in order to be friends, and doing what someone else would rather do is one of the best ways to show your true friendship!
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You are your child’s first teacher and first friend. By teaching her the value of friendship and how to properly build bonds, you can provide her with the foundation to build friendships that will last a lifetime.
You are your child’s first teacher and first friend. By teaching her the value of friendship and how to properly build bonds, you can provide her with the foundation to build friendships that will last a lifetime.
Naomi Shaw is a freelance writer in Southern California. With three kids of her own, she constantly looks for ways to encourage the formation of lasting friendships in their lives. She contributes content to the Candy Concepts Inc. blog, where you can read more of her work.