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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When. I was a kid, if I wanted to see a friend, I picked up the family landline and called their family landline, minimal to no grown ups involved. I want that for my kid (8 years old) but that seems unnecessarily complicated. None of their friends have phones, so even if I gave them one it would not solve the problem (and would also create new problems). It doesn't really work to have them just plan at school, because they might not know ahead of time exactly when they will be free and it has proved difficult for them to coordinate meeting at the park at particular times without involving parents. Plus it of course doesn't work during summer.

Do your 8 year olds have email accounts they can access on a family computer? Walkie talkies that go all the way to friends houses? A culture where they walk to friends houses and knock on the door unannounced? Other ideas?

I don't really want to introduce the same dynamic of group text messages and so forth --I just want to empower them to plan to meet their friends at the park or invite them over without having to ask me to ask the friends' parents, which creates friction and a feeling of being un-empowered and dependent. Any advice?[/quote]

I can't wait until they reach 6th grade and start socializing on their own accord. I have hated the playdates and trying to arrange these type of things. I've been in more awkward and weird adult conversations with other moms and parents than I ever would have liked. Don't get me started on when I went to someone's home and their DH worked at home in the office and he came to join us moms in his home. I walked into a weird marriage dynamic with 2 stranger parents from my kids school, it was awful.[/quote]

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