Friends With No Names

Definition of the word “friend” (from multiple sources):

• A person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard
• A person who gives assistance; supporter
• A person who is on good terms with another; a person who is not hostile
• Someone you like so much, it doesn't matter if you share interests or traits. A friend is someone you like so much, you start to like the things they like.

Does your child know who their friends are? (No, that is not a trick question.)

Every day, I ask my 6-year-old son different questions in order to learn about his friends. I want to know who they are, what they like, and if they are good in school. (Yes, I’m nosey.)

I’m finding that he has many “friends.” This appears to be true as each day when I walk him to class, children greet him along the way and appear excited to see him.

The ironic thing about my son’s friends is: HE DOESN’T KNOW THEM! (Seriously?!)

When I ask him, “Who was that,” I get a response of, “I don’t know.” (HUH?) So I continue with, “Are you friends?” To which he replies, “Yes.” (How can someone be friends and not know who the friend is or his or her name? This leaves me perplexed.)

He will say he plays with them, that they go to the same after school program or that they have lunch together and so on, yet he doesn’t know their names. 

It makes me happy that he has friends at school, EXCEPT for the fact that all the other children seem to know my child’s NAME and yet he doesn’t know theirs. Does he go around all day saying, “Hey, kid” or “Hey you,” or even worse: “Yo!”  Does he not put their names to memory, or are these just the secrets that a first-grader keeps to himself and doesn’t allow mom to know?

Well, my “friends,” this one is a mystery. A mystery that I will title: ”Friends with no names.”