Lion’s Whiskers offers this courage challenge: Before school ends this year and you’ve lost the chance to exercise your social courage muscles, look around: Is there someone in your child’s class that you and your child haven’t spent much time with?
Seize the opportunity to arrange an end-of-the-year playdate or a chance to hang out. This potential new friend or family could broaden your social horizons in ways you may not yet have even considered! Everybody has a story. Unless we create opportunities to connect, we may never get the chance to know how that story may add a new chapter to your own life story.
After you and your child have decided whom to invite and what might be fun to do together, your challenge as the parent is to make these arrangements on the phone or in-person while your child is present. That way you are modeling the kind of social outreach, with all the polite, preamble, get-to-know-you conversation that that entails. Whether you have a preschooler, highschooler, or someone in between, it’s never too late to help your child create a new friendship.
“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t met yet.” ~ William Butler Yeats
What’s a true story from your life about a time you reached out to make a new friend or helped your child to do so?
