31 Days Closer to Your Kids: Host Their Friends
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Last Friday, you may recall, there was a little matter of a wedding. A Royal wedding.
Over there . . . in England . . . where I like to be every so often . . . the wedding took place at the same hour that B and I got married: 11:00 a.m. It’s a decent hour to get married.
But over here the hour was not decent at all. All of the pre-wedding coverage started at 3:00 a.m. THREE O’CLOCK IN THE A. M., PEOPLE!! The wedding itself started at 5:00 a.m.
In order to watch the big event live, you had to be pretty committed (get it?!) and get up EARLY. Boy, was I ever committed.
At 4:30 a.m., girls started streaming in my front door. I don’t think I’ve ever welcomed guests to my home at that hour. Ever! By the start of the ceremony there were a dozen college girls in their pajamas sitting in my family room staring at the television.
And I loved every minute of it.
Was I tired that day . . . and the next? You bet I was.
Was it worth it to create a lasting memory for my girls and their friends? Oh yeah.
I feel like I’m a very lucky mom because not only do I really enjoy my own kids, I truly enjoy their friends. And I love hosting their friends here in our home. Which is one way I really think we connect with our own kids—when we connect with their friends too.
Here are a few pointers to hosting kids in your home:
Start when they’re young. Get your kids in the habit of inviting friends over. Over the years they will just know that you want their friends to be around.
Be the place they all want to be. This means, of course, having plenty of food available for kids to eat. When Julia was younger she used to bring a friend home from school every Friday, and on most weeks I made sure I baked cookies before they got here. To this day, her friend still calls our house the “Cookie House” because she knows she’ll get a cookie if she stops by.
Don’t expect them to pay too much attention to you. After all, having kids over isn’t about you, Mom. It’s about them connecting with each other. But in the end, your own kids will appreciate that you were there.
In the end, everyone benefits when you host your kids’ friends. Your kids will feel important because you took the time to do this. You will get to know their friends better (and believe me, this is SUCH a benefit. I love my kids’ friends!). And you might just get to share some love and kindness to someone who really needs it.
Be sure to check out the other gals in the "31 Days Closer . . ." series:
Sandy at The Amazing Adventures of the Fitness Friday Girl
Melanie at Bella~Mella
Jen at Finding Heaven
Lisa at Glad Chatter
Missy at It's Almost Naptime
