Jennifer LytleModern parents are more involved in their children’s lives. When it comes to friendships, the key is to offer moderate oversight while maintaining strong parent-child/teen connection. Your connection keeps your child safe. Stay tuned in and be the one who helps him or her stay connected to others. For a timely article on summer socials for your teens and tweens, read more here.
Featured Expert in Child & Teen Friendship Guide For Parents
Check out Joyful Journeys Counseling Founder and Clinical Director direct quotes in this article on friendships in your children’s lives. What’s your role? How can you resonably respond when you dislike your teen’s choice of friends?
The Perfect Opportunity to Find Out Which Type of People to Avoid
Children and teens deserve opportunities to discover various relationships. In an imperfect world, this can and will include the gambit of good and bad relationships. It is okay for your kids, regardless of their age, to try them out in plenty of shapes and sizes. This is not refering to friendships with an individual displaying obvious or ongoing red flags.
All Types of Friendships Help Children and Teens Develop in a Complicated World
You want your kid to find out that there are different kinds of relationships. It is healthy to have a few close, deep connections. It is also healthy to know several people to exchange friendly, casual, “Hey! How was your weekend?!” with. These relationships are different and different relationships make a well-rounded life. No one can only have close relationships. Who will be your banker in that case? Will you be stuck if you and the mechanic are not friends? Similarly, no one should only have superficial relationships or relationships that have no individual or personal connection. We need all types of relationships to stay healthy and so a better conversation to start having is: what type of relationship is this? Is this someone I can trust with my surprise party for grandma? Is this someone who I can complain to about my teacher? Is it better to keep things light and friendly with this person? These questions acknowledge the nuances of relationships and allow your child to explore the concept further. This is a safe way to approach friendships for your children and teens. “‘[B]eing a safe space . . . is exactly what your child needs more than your direction or advice'” (Lytle as cited in Ellis, 2026).
[B]eing a safe space . . . is exactly what your child needs more than your direction or advice.”
Summer Plan for Fun
Need some help figuring out what to do all summer? Grab the free download with summer fun for teens and tweens. They are sorted into categories to balance out more meaningful connections with simply fun outings.
You Might Wanna, But Refrain From Keeping Your Kids From Friends You Don’t Like
Epidemics of loneliness and depression among not only teens, but among children as well (Mullen, 2018) indicate environments are missing something rich and necessary. Relationships cannot be forced. And if parents have failed to learn what every love story gone wrong taught us, when you try to separate people, the headstrong become more determined than ever.
Sources
Ellis, S. (2026, June 11). Friend or foe? How to approach your child being friends with someone you don’t like. Moms who think. https://www.momswhothink.com/friend-or-foe-how-to-approach-your-child-being-friends-with-someone-you-dont-like/
Mullen, S. (2018). Major depressive disorder in children and adolescents. The mental health clinician, 8(6), 275–283. https://doi.org/10.9740/mhc.2018.11.275
