Importance of Knowing Your Child’s Friends

Friends play a crucial role in the growth of the child. Children spend plenty of time in an environment that exposes them to the realities of the world. They may be spending more time with friends in school, tuitions, hobby classes, and may be influenced by the way the friends are.

Friends form an external support system for the child. Parents cannot be available for children all the time. It is at this time that the assistance, the support, the guidance of friends becomes very useful. Friends can be a source of emotional stability, fun and enjoyment, a companion or rescuer, a guide or confidante for your child. Not ignoring the flip side, they could have a poor influence on your child leading him/her to wrong ways, habits and risky practices.

As parents you develop an eye for people, and know from your experience, instinct, insight about the kind of person one is. You can make out very well the influence the friend has on the child, what will the friendship lead to, how safe your child is or how exposed to harm.

Use a pretext to get to know your child’s friends. Invite them for a party at your home and observe them. Offer to pick them up or drop them after the party so that you get a feel of the place the friend comes from, the exposure of the friend to various things, the surroundings and environment the friend comes from. This will help you to assess their character and personality.

Engage yourself with the friends, say by calling friends at home for studies, during festivals, helping out in group assignments or taking them along for weekend visit to a picnic, museum etc. In this way you can create a feeling of trust and belongingness with the child’s friends. The friends will reciprocate similarly and will take care to see that his/her behaviour does not upset you and cause any difficulty to your child.

Value the relationship that your child shares with the friends and vice a versa.