fairfarmhand Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 that homeschooled kids like to socialize with kids/people that are not only in their own age group. :) We are having people over next week and she's insisting that it will be horrible because there will be no one there her age. (FTR, we regularly invite people over that do include her age-mates. This time we're including people we don't ordinarily invite because we;d like to include people of many ages, including a few single moms and older couples. We are full up !) Sometimes we invite families who have kids her age and some of her siblings don't have a playmate. That's okay too! We're just trying to branch out our social circle beyond families that are matchy matchy with our kids. (I am super excited about including these single ladies. It occurred to me, that singles may not get as many invites as couples and families because of social dynamics, so I want to break that mold for these super nice gals) I guess my dd didn't read all those articles about homeschooled kids hanging out with kids/people of all ages. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starr Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Are there any young people invited? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I would focus more on if any of them share any of her interests and capitalizing on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted April 22, 2013 Author Share Posted April 22, 2013 yes. There are kids several years younger than her. And I did assure her that she will not be expected to look after the younger kids. (I never do this when we have company, whether or not her friends will be there.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted April 22, 2013 Author Share Posted April 22, 2013 I would focus more on if any of them share any of her interests and capitalizing on that. Oddly, there are several people coming that she enjoys talking to and spending time with. I know she will have a good time. She's not being ugly about it, but she is insisting that it will be miserable. I'm just filing this reaction under the "I must complain/argue about things that are not my idea out of general principle." This is pretty much par for the course with this kiddo. She will end up having a good time. Many ideas that I have are met with this type of reaction and in the end she has an enjoyable time. It won't be an AMAZING time, like it would be if her BFF was coming, but she won't be miserable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
history_junkie Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 My family had a lot of people over all growing up, and someone my age was hit or miss. Even when there were people my age, that didn't mean we got along. Of course, I would always try to hang out with the adults anyway :-) For my 16th birthday party, I invited 8-10 adult women for a tea party. They were, and still are, much closer friends than anyone my age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted April 22, 2013 Author Share Posted April 22, 2013 My family had a lot of people over all growing up, and someone my age was hit or miss. Even when there were people my age, that didn't mean we got along. Of course, I would always try to hang out with the adults anyway :-) For my 16th birthday party, I invited 8-10 adult women for a tea party. They were, and still are, much closer friends than anyone my age. thank you! I had several adult women as close friends as a teen and I really needed their advice/support as I got older. I hope that my dd has the same sort of relationships with older women. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 My 12 year old boy is not wanting to mix with 10 and unders as much and I just think it's natural with the age. He does fine, but is definitely preferring kids in the 11-14 age range right now. And I think it can be even harder for an oldest kid because I know here, statistically, he ends up being the oldest kid a bunch of the time with the groups we get together with. That said, I also think it's fine to say Suck it up, Buttercup. It's one get together and she gets regular peer time. They're not moving in! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravin Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Can't help with the teen attitude, but I think inviting single friends was a great idea. Some of the best times I had when I was single were hanging out with a friend who was a few years older and had (homeschooled) kids. That was far more my idea of a good time than "typical" activities for a single twentysomething. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted April 22, 2013 Author Share Posted April 22, 2013 Can't help with the teen attitude, but I think inviting single friends was a great idea. Some of the best times I had when I was single were hanging out with a friend who was a few years older and had (homeschooled) kids. That was far more my idea of a good time than "typical" activities for a single twentysomething. yeah. We love inviting people over, but I kind of got in a rut with inviting the same people. I also found that I was the only one doing the inviting since several of my previously homeschooling friends went back to work. I decided that I need to branch out and make friends with people in MANY stages of life, in different situations. Now to get my dd onboard with that decision! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 Teens often feel awkward or out of place in different groups. Encourage her to just have a good time anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I think I would just give her the information and let her make her decision about how she feels. In studying emotional issues with regard to my own kid, the following really stood out: We can't control how we feel. We can control how we respond to our feelings and how we think about them. (i.e. Whether we "feed" the bad feelings or the good, and whether we act on them.) Set forth the expectations for behavior, allow a venting of the feelings and move on. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy22alyns Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I think I was a really weird kid. When I was a teenager, I'd go visit my dad in another state, and for the longest time he'd try to meet up with other families who had kids my age. I was massively uncomfortable about it and actually politely asked him to not bother trying to find kids my age for me to hang out with. :huh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greta Lea Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 We moved to a new area in November. My 15 yo's only good friend here is one of the adults who volunteers with the youth group. His best friend from back home is 3 years older than him. When he was 5-8yo, his best buddies were the elderly couple across the street. Good memories there:) He never really has truly enjoyed a lot of time spent with same aged peers (or younger aged peers...always older at least a bit). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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