Helping Your Young Children Make Friends

It dawned on me about a year or so ago that my oldest (he was about one and a half at the time) was starting to be at an age when he really would benefit from having some friends. I hadn't gone out of my way to set up play dates or even take him places where there would be a lot of other children around. I blamed it on the fact that we moved around so much (nine times in four years).

I've also leaned on the "I'm shy" crutch for a lot of years, so I hadn't generally made a habit of making friends every time we moved. I'd mostly keep to myself or hang out with one or two other people who had moved with us (my husband did summer sales). But it was getting hard to deny that my son needed friends and that it was up to me to help him make that happen.

Take them where other children will be. A good way to start, I thought, was to take Lincoln (my son) to the playground or to a children's museum where he could run around and make friends. This was effective because, luckily, Lincoln is extremely friendly. He makes friends wherever he goes, as do most small children. They are amazing at making friends! It's like they have a little-person radar and they can seek out the children who are their own age and make immediate best friends with them everywhere they go.

How to Get Your Husband (Or Wife) Out of the House

photo credit to Rachel Dunston

My friend suggested I write about this, which was most likely a joke. But it has legit been a struggle for us and I have, in fact, figured out many ways in which to get my husband out of the house, so to speak. So I'm going to impart my pearls of wisdom. 

You see, my husband, Quinn, is what you might call indoorsy (as Jim Gaffigan would say). Quinn will tell you so himself. For some reason, I went through most of my life believing that people were basically the same in many ways, which I guess they are. But not in this way. There are plenty of people out there who are 100% content to stay at home most of the time. Strange I didn't notice this before I was married because some of my very best friends and close relatives are self-declared homebodies. But there it is. Some people (my husband included) would prefer to stay home. Don't get me wrong--if there's a softball league you want him to be a part of or you need him for a pick up game of basketball, he's there in a heartbeat. It's just everything else that he doesn't get too excited about. He hates (or at least hated) hiking and if he has some spare time, he usually gets comfy on the couch and plays FIFA on the Xbox or turns on an episode of Battle Bots (nerd alert).