Tips for helping your children make friends. Parents can encourage their children to make friends.
Parents can encourage their children to make friends by welcoming other children to their home and yard. When the children bring their friends home after school, a mother who is really glad to see them can make the other children feel that this is a fine place to come, a jolly place to play. Such hospitality gives security to a child, a feeling that his home belongs to him, too. Plenty of outdoor equipment stimulates wholesome play and brings a group together. Some good indoor games for rainy days will make the older children want to come over for a while. A picnic in the back yard on Saturday or popcorn around the fire on a cold afternoon may take a bit of planning, but they pay big dividends in helping child to be friendly.
From the time children are quite small they can help Mother prepare not only for their friends, but for hers, too. Entertaining should be a family pleasure, shared by all. Keep a well filled cookie jar: some simple fruit drinks, chocolate milk, or cocoa with marshmallows on top give much pleasure to a group of children.
The fact that the door is always open to your children's friends does not mean that they should be allowed to "run wild" through your house and yard. There should be simple rules about putting things away when the games are over. There should also be rules about running in the house and loud shouting. Some games are for out-of-doors. Your child can learn thoughtfulness for other people is they learn to be a good friend to others.
If a child has felt free to bring his friends home during his childhood years, the habit will usually carry over into adolescence, providing the older children feel free to have their friends to the home. They might be allowed to even roll up the rugs and dance or even cook supper. When your children are in your home there is no worry as to where they are or what activities they are involved in, so it's well worth the effort to make their friends welcome in your home.
Children also need to have adult friends that come to the home. Many hours could be spent very happy with your children and adult friends, talking, experiencing collections, sharing a hobby, etc. If they have good friendships with adults when they are small, have also good relationships with their parents, then they will want to know adults as they grow older. Remember a child who has friends among both adults and children is well equipped to meet the social needs of his life with security.
Friendships with those of our own age, or with those of different ages, add immeasurably to the richness of life. Also as a parent there can be no deeper reward to be achieved than the knowledge that his child has developed a fine, warm, friendly personality. The time and thought which parents spend in helping their child to have friends is time well-spent in adding to a child's personal traits which will make him secure in the acceptance and affection of others.
