Will you be my friend?

When my husband and I were thinking about Homeschooling, my biggest concern for the boys was shyness. My boys were already showing signs of being shy and I didn't want that for them.

I've got nothing against shy people, but I was shy when I was little. Being shy is no fun. I used to hide behind my mom. The NOT shy people would take advantage of me. I would let my friends talk for me. (Most of the time). I wouldn't go and just do something.

It all changed when I started traveling for Wal-Mart. You can't be shy when you are in charge of at least 300 people and 7 members of management. So I became un-shy. But it was hard work. I was in my 20's when that happened and I missed out on a lot of friendships and adventures because of my shyness.

So when we were talking about it, I told Hubster that I wanted to see what we could do to get the shyness out of the boys. We were already facing some opposition from people who said that Homeschooling didn't let the boys socialize. Whatever!

If you were to meet my boys and not know they were homeschooled, you would be surprised. They are not shy at all. And they make friends very easily.

But I've noticed that when kids make friends, they are not like us adults. They don't care about little things, they just want a friend.

For example, when we adults meet another adult, we ask them their name. And then we try to up one on them. Not intentionaly, but we do. You know, when the other person says that they have a certain model of car, then you say you have this other model. When the other person says they have 3 bathrooms in their house, you say you have 4 even though you only have 2.

Kids don't do that. At least not all the time. One day I notice UB talking to a boy twice his age. He was laughing and talking to this kid. The kid was doing the same. Then they started playing with each other. When UB came over, I asked him if who the kid was. He said it was his new friend. I asked if this friend had a name, he said he didn't ask.

AB does that as well. When we go places, he usually makes a new friend. I ask the same question. What was his name? His answer is always the same. I don't know.

It made me realize that what seems to be important to us is definately not important to them.

They don't care if they know the person's name, they just know they made a new friend.

Why can't we all think like kids?