Helping our children choose the right friends

Having friends is one of the most beautiful blessings anyone can wish for, but how do we help our children choose the right ones?

Here are a few tips we, as mothers, can use to guide our little ones towards creating healthy friendships!

• Every time we notice a child struggling to communicate and get closer to other children around him, we need to remind him that making friends requires both time and patience.
• Common interests create a solid foundation for friendships. This is why we should encourage our children to invest their time in hobbies and activities that they love, so they can have fun and meet kids that share the same interests.
• Let’s talk to our children about the values and characteristics they should look for in a friend. But before they can do so, we have to make sure that we build those same values and characteristics within them first.
• Teaching our little ones the basis of a respectful dialogue and the healthy “give-and-take” flow in a conversation paves the way towards developing their social skills over time, in addition to learning how to negotiate with their friends.

Finally, let us not forget that we need to lead our children by example through making healthy and strong friendships that survive the test of time.

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