Teen boy who is popular and well-liked but not part of a pack?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No. It's better this way.

+1

Usually it’s the pack from one’s primary sport or EC. No worries OP, we tell our girls to have many circles of friends everywhere.

And we relocated after Elementary school so they had to press on.

[Anonymous]

This is actually ideal IMO

[Anonymous]

Weird that you are focused on whether your kid is popular and well liked. It would be okay even if he were not.

[Anonymous]

It's ideal. Nothing good comes from group mentality. Count your blessings. There is so much drama in those packs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you worried because he has friends but they aren’t close enough to do things outside of school? Or literally that he doesn’t have a guy group that does things as a unit all the time?

Not OP but my kid has issues with others not being available when he is or him not having a large group to attract others to unless he really works at it. He gets invited to stuff but is never part of the main group. So that is the downside to being a connector. You never really have a home base.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you worried because he has friends but they aren’t close enough to do things outside of school? Or literally that he doesn’t have a guy group that does things as a unit all the time?

Not OP but my kid has issues with others not being available when he is or him not having a large group to attract others to unless he really works at it. He gets invited to stuff but is never part of the main group. So that is the downside to being a connector. You never really have a home base.

Your home base is you. The sooner a person realizes that, the easier it becomes to attract others to anything you want to do.

[Anonymous]

This is my teen son and the positives are it’s very drama free.

Lisa Damour, a parenting advice giver look her up on insta, talks about why these small packs of friends can actually be quite problematic for teens.

[Anonymous]

I think this is a positive. He is can adapt to different personalities, he is well liked. I think in long run for sure a positive.

I understand your concern. But if he’s happy, content - don’t worry about it. Nothing you can do anyway, right? Hopefully he has one real true deep friend - but seems like guys often have friends “mile wide, inch deep”

I think he’ll be fine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you worried because he has friends but they aren’t close enough to do things outside of school? Or literally that he doesn’t have a guy group that does things as a unit all the time?

Not OP but my kid has issues with others not being available when he is or him not having a large group to attract others to unless he really works at it. He gets invited to stuff but is never part of the main group. So that is the downside to being a connector. You never really have a home base.

Your home base is you. The sooner a person realizes that, the easier it becomes to attract others to anything you want to do.

Amen!

[Anonymous]

The constructive comments here was helpful to me OP as my son is similar - made it particularly hard for a while during covid - and i worry he doesnt have enough to do sometimes on the weekends….but hes seemingly happy and i think will ultimately serve him well

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m observing that most teen HS boys have a pack of 3-5 friends. My son has a lot of friends across different cliques and groups but doesn’t seem to have a pack, just several close friends who all belong to different packs.

Should I worry that he doesn’t have a pack?

This is honestly the best of both worlds. Good friendships without the questionable shenanigans that go on in packs of teen boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your son has a lot of friends in different groups so is accepted by many and open to different types of people… seems like a great young man. Why try to find things to worry about?

+1

This was me in high school and college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your son has a lot of friends in different groups so is accepted by many and open to different types of people… seems like a great young man. Why try to find things to worry about?

+1

This was me in high school and college.

Sure it was

[Anonymous]

My son is like this - total floater. What can ya do? People are who they are.