{"id":1237,"date":"2015-01-29T06:52:15","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T13:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mops.org\/2015\/01\/29\/what-ive-learned-about-friendship-from-my-kids\/"},"modified":"2015-01-29T06:52:15","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T13:52:15","slug":"what-ive-learned-about-friendship-from-my-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/what-ive-learned-about-friendship-from-my-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"What I’ve Learned About Friendship From My Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

We had found a church to call home, we moved to a neighborhood where we actually got to meet our neighbors, and a park to meet other parents. I made friends in an awesome MOPS group, and I was blessed with a mentor. But as I watch my two kids – they are teaching me all about friendship.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They teach me friendship is sometimes just for a season.<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOh no mom, he is not my friend any more. He likes to play with Tim now.\u201d They tell me without guilt or hurt feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They teach me friendship can be built in seconds.<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

When we were waiting to get a table at our favorite restaurant, my oldest tells me: \u201cThat girl in the red dress, who was also waiting, is now my friend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They teach me that each friend has their own special value.<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like Anna because she talks to me about all kinds of things. John is fun to play good guy games. Christie and I love to play kitty cat on the trampoline.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They teach me friendship is a gift, one to hold, to cherish and to say thanks for.
<\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMom, I made this craft for David, he is such a nice friend to me. I think my craft makes him happy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came to understand friends are those ordinary, tough, special people put in my life for a purpose. Sometimes it is for 15 seconds – the friend in line at the grocery store. I don\u2019t even know his name. Sometimes it is for 15 years – the friend I met in college. Sometimes it is just for a season – the friend who walked alongside me during my third pregnancy. Sometimes it is for a special purpose – the friend I share my hopes and dreams with and the one I share my gym membership. Sometimes it is to give – the friend I cook for and encourage. Sometimes it is to receive – the friend who listens to me, hour after hour.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of them, all those ordinary people, my special friends have one thing in common: Only because I choose to open my eyes, my ears and my heart to those who happen to cross my path of life, am I able to call them my friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My kids taught me starting a friendship most of the time is just a matter of introducing yourself:
\u201cHi, I am Zarah. This is my brother Boaz. He is four years old. And I am three. What is your name? You want to play tag with us?\u201d I hear her saying it over and over again at the playground.Minutes later they come running to me, telling me all about their new friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they run off again I realize, embarrassed, I have been standing next to the mom of this new friend for at least ten minutes now, without asking her name. Maybe she just moved here, longing for a friend. Maybe her social agenda is completely filled. Whatever the case, it doesn\u2019t matter. This ordinary, but ever so special mom is placed in my life in this moment. Only if I dare to open my eyes, my ears and my heart to her, I might be able to call her my friend. Who knows, she might be a very special friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Jacodien Vreugdenhil is a Dutch girl who learned to embrace being an American mom and is learning a lot from her kids (5,3,1) on subjects such as friends, friendship, enjoying the moment and climbing trees.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What have your children taught you about friendship?<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had found a church to call home, we moved to a neighborhood where we actually got to meet our neighbors, and a park to meet other parents. I made friends in an awesome MOPS group, and I was blessed with a mentor. But as I watch my two kids – they are teaching me […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":12921,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[26,230,203,169],"class_list":["post-1237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships","tag-family","tag-heart","tag-inspire","tag-kids"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}