ADULT FRIENDSHIPS: COMMON STRUGGLES TO BUILDING FRIENDSHIPS WITH OTHER PARENTS
EMAIL 1
Copy/paste the email below.
Subject Line: Adult Friendships: Common Struggles to Building Friendships with Other Parents
Dear (Insert Name of Parent),
Many of you talk to your children about how to make friends in elementary school. But do you ever find yourself struggling to understand your friendships? Have they changed since high school or college?
If you find yourself struggling to make sense of your friendships, you are normal! Today, we give you a brief video that explains 3 common struggles of parents as they build friendships with other parents.
Click here to watch:
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/424287225/1ee3325bd0
My role as a children’s leader is not just to support your children. I am here to support you and your family. I hope this video does just that.
If you need anything, please do not hesitate to reach out.
(Insert Leader’s Name Here)
EMAIL 2
Copy/paste the email below.
Subject Line: Adult Friendships: Common Struggles to Building Friendships with Other Parents
Dear (Insert Name of Parent),
In the elementary years, your child is learning how to make and be a friend. Whether in 1st grade or 5th grade, the classroom and extra-curricular activities provide valuable opportunities for children to develop relationships.
Parents have the same opportunities but in different learning laboratories, from the office to church groups. So how do you intentionally make and be a friend? We have a brief video that explains 3 common struggles of parents as they build friendships with other parents.
Click here to watch:
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/424287225/1ee3325bd0
As you guide your child in friendships, I hope this video gives you the tools you need. Most importantly, I want this video to inspire you to develop friendships for yourself. You are worth it.
It is an honor to support you and your family,
(Insert Leader’s Name Here)
VIDEO
SOCIAL MEDIA SWAG
Do you struggle to find friendships with other parents? If so, you’re not alone. For more info, check your email for our short parent video.Â
We have some parent encouragement for you! Check your email for our short parent video.Â
Check your inbox for a powerful, short video on finding friends as parents.
Learn more about how to understand friendships in our short and encouraging parent video. Check your inbox for more.
Friendships are worth the work. Check your inbox for a brief, encouraging video.
VIDEO SCRIPT
It’s easy to talk to our kids about their friendships and give them encouragement about how they need to make new friends or if they get into a fight with their friend, how they need to make it better or how they need to put themselves out there and be open to new friendships.
It’s easy for us to do that for our kids, but what about when it comes to us as parents? You know, they say it takes a village, and that is true. We need our own village, but maybe instead of a village, maybe I’ll insert community and community comes and is built and is the foundation of community is friendships. But there are some struggles that we find as parents trying to build friendships specifically with other parents.
First of all, sometimes it’s easier to just kind of ride alone. I know I feel that sometimes because it’s kind of hard to put yourself out there with other parents, but also you’re dealing with your own lives, your own kids, there’s all this other stuff going on. It’s sometimes easier to just get wrapped up in your kid’s life than to try to pursue a life of your own.
But we got to resist that. We have to open our hearts to friendships. But opening our hearts is probably a second struggle that we deal with as well, because, in order to have friendships sometimes, we have to admit that we’re not perfect or that we don’t have it all together. If we’re going to connect with someone, we have to let them see that we’re struggling, and sometimes it’s hard as a parent, especially to say, “We don’t have it all together in this area.” Or, “We’re struggling in this area with our kid,” but that’s the exact magic to creating friendships. When we open ourselves up and are vulnerable and say, “You know what? We don’t have it all together.” What happens is other parents are free to say, “You know what? We don’t have it all together too.” And you can connect over your imperfection rather than trying to show in display a false perfection.
The final struggle I wanted to talk to you about is one of the ones that, for me, is a very common struggle, and I’m hoping it might encourage you. That is sometimes we get confused in our relationships and friendships, and we think that our friend is one thing, but they really are another, and we just don’t know how to organize our relationships and understand what type of friendship we have.
You see, when I explained this to my boys, I usually tell them that there are friendship buckets. I have three that I use. One of them is acquaintances. The second bucket is I have friends, and the other bucket is I have close friends. Now, everybody I meet, almost everybody I meet, falls into one of those categories, and when I can put them in a bucket, I can understand how I need to relate to them.
Obviously, an acquaintance is someone that I know, but they’re not necessarily a friend, but they’re someone that I know and like, and I’m willing to greet and say, “Hello,” if I see him out in public. Maybe we’re Facebook friends or something like that.
A friend is someone who I have picked out of the crowd and said, “You know what? I want you in my world, but you might not be a 2:00 AM phone call for me. If I get stuck on the road at 2:00 AM, I’m probably not calling you, but you’re still one of my friends, and I’m here to help and offer you whatever I can.”
Then there’s that close friend bucket, and there’s not a lot of room for a ton of people in that bucket, but those are the people you do call it 2:00 AM and the people that you can depend on, and you’re really kind of doing life with, that term that we like to use.
Now, why do we need buckets? Well, because if we get these things out of order, sometimes if we have an acquaintance that we’re treating like a close friend, things get really weird, really fast. Or if we have a close friend that we need to, we realize it’s not very healthy for us. We might need to note that we need to move them to just be in a friend and maybe find a new close friend.
See, we have seasons in friendships, and we have shifted in relationships, and we need to learn for ourselves as parents that that’s okay. We teach that to our kids, but we need to embrace that for ourselves.
So listen, whether you’re resisting the temptation to just go it alone, whether you’re scared to share your heart with others that you don’t have it all together, or whether you’re confused about whether someone’s an acquaintance, a friend, or a close friend, I hope this helps you think and realize that you’re not alone, but friendships are worth it. So let’s work through these struggles together.