Building Friendships at a Young Age

 There are few things more important I this world than good friends. Friends can pick you up when you’re feeling down, lend you a shoulder to cry on when things go bad, help you up when need a hand and they’ve got your back if you get in a scrape. They are there to celebrate the milestones in your life and the best stick with you through thick and thin.

As children, maybe one of the most important things that we do is learn about building friendships at a young age and then nurture them and allow them to grow.  Important skills like socialising and courtesy are born of these friendships as well as the ideas about honour, faithfulness and compassion.  Indeed, many of the traits that we will use for the rest of our lives are learned and honed with our childhood friends.

Valuable Skills Learnt Through Friendships

The ability to be friends with someone is a skill all by itself.  The average child doesn’t know what it’s like to have to share until the day that they realise that sharing with a friend can be so much fun and is a great way to make friends.  Sharing may seem like nothing to an adult but to a child giving someone else the ‘right’ to touch, use or otherwise interact with their possessions is a big step.

Life lessons about trust, reliance and devotion are all learned with our friends before almost anyone else, even our parents and siblings. The ability to make friends and keep them is one that can serve a person well throughout their entire life and, if learned soundly as a child, will certainly make anyone a better adult.

Making Friends if Your Child is Shy

Making friends is easier for some that it is for others, no doubt.  Shy children may have a lot to offer a friend but, because of their shyness, may not be able to bring themselves to do it.  If this is the case making sure that having friends over is comfortable for your child is vital, especially in their bedrooms where they can play and pretend.

Friends Shape your View of The World

A friend of another race or culture can open up a whole new world of interesting facts, traditions and customs that otherwise might never have been discovered.  The fact is, having friends as children is vitally important to our futures as adults.

Allowing your children to make friends at a young age is simply one of the best ways to teach them about how the world works. If you’re keen on helping out, make sure that their bedroom furniture is inviting for more than just one person, and that sleeping arrangements can easily be made for sleepovers. For example, trundle beds allow for a friend to stay over easily. Highsleeper beds also create room for activities and playtime with friends!

Then just sit back and let your child make friends, grow and mature. It will pay off later in their lives, we guarantee it.