Helping Our Children Navigate Friendships

“In my frequent conversations with parents of children with challenging behaviors, the most heartbreaking stories emerge when a parent talks about a child’s constant struggles with making and keeping friends. A parent will tell me they witness their child desperately wanting to have friends and be included in social activities, only to be invited to the friend’s house and then behave in a way that ensures they’ll never be invited over again. As their kids get older, friendships sometimes begin with a promising start, only to completely crumble due to their child’s inability to “be kind” or “compromise” or “respond appropriately” in different situations. This pattern repeats itself over and over again, and the parents feel helpless in knowing what they can do to stop it.

I understand this heartache intimately.

A few months ago, before social-distancing and quarantine meant an end to friend visits for a while, my 11-year-old daughter asked if we could invite a classmate from school over to play…”

Read more at https://www.eileendevine.com/single-post/helping-our-children-navigate-friendships