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> How many times have we heard parents say, “Oh, they’ll make new friends,” as if the relationships of children are so shallow and contextual that they can be s
by smileysteve 8y ago
> How many times have we heard parents say, “Oh, they’ll make new friends,” as if the relationships of children are so shallow and contextual that they can be swapped out like last year’s lunchbox?
This is where the author loses me; for several reasons
1) Parents might have several reasons for severing a child's friendship, whether relocating for a job, disagreements in the adult relationship, or disagreements in moores and values.
2) People will experience loss in many types of relationships. It doesn't mean they were worthless, in many ways this grief means just the opposite. It's similar important for people to be able to create new friendships with new people.
- magpi3 8y agoThe point the author is trying to make IMO is that the parents dismiss the relationships as shallow and contextual, while the children themselves, the ones actually in the relationship, have no choice whatsoever. Of course relationships will come and go in everyone's life, but in an adult relationship at least there is some choice made by one of the two parties invested in the relationship. I met my dearest and oldest friend in the fourth grade. If my parents had made a life decision that would have cost me that relationship it would have been a huge, huge (really unimaginable at this point) loss for me.
- mkong1 8y agoI don't really understand why the article makes it seem friendships ending due to distance only applies to boys.
- pesmhey 8y agoSo, how much is a child with healthy relationships and a strong sense of community worth? Because the job relocation might not make up the difference? At a certain point, you stop being able to form healthy relationships after you’ve been severed from so many.