Learning to Socialize
This summer has been a big opportunity for Bethany to spread her wings and become the social butterfly that we always knew she would be. It’s something she gets from her Opa, and to a lesser extent, me. The constant refrain that we hear from her in the evening is “I wanna play with the kids.” Now, “the kids” is a somewhat generic term for her meaning any of the dozen or so kids in the neighborhood who are less than three times her age.
There are three families just down the street from us with kids in her age range. They all enjoy riding bikes up and down the street and playing together in the yards in the evening. When all of them are out, its a mass of 9 kids tearing around the neighborhood.
Bethany also has an ability to decide that any young girl at the park is also “a friend”. If there are other kids at the park, it usually doesn’t take her long to find someone to play with. It’s a nice break for us since otherwise she’d be wanting her parents to run around the park with her.
It will be interesting to see how her friendships progress and grow. Most of the kids in the neighborhood are school age, so once school starts back, she won’t have anyone to play with during the day. But that isn’t too much of a problem since daytime is errand and nap time.
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