When you're the mom of an only child, you spend a lot of time wearing the hats of the other people who aren't in your child's life. The Boy Wonder, for example, treats me at times like his mom (which I am), a best friend or a big sister (which, obviously, I am not).
This can be good or bad... but I choose to see it as good. He tells me things I would never have told my mother. I love that I will pick him up from school and he will confide in me in a way I never could with my parents. Not that I didn't love them, but there were some things I reserved for my big sister or brother, things I thought they'd understand better. He still wants to spend time with me. I'm still cool. I keep waiting for him to decide he doesn't want to be seen with me in public. It hasn't happened yet. He likes to ride bikes with him mom. He likes to help me walk our two dogs. He loves to snuggle up next to me on the couch while I read my book and he reads his.
The downside - I don't think the Boy Wonder forms close friendships with kids his own age as easily as other kids do. I don't know whether that's because of the only child thing - I suspect there are other factors at play in his personality - but I wouldn't be surprised if it plays a part. He spends all his time with grown-ups (namely, me and his dad), so he relates better to those who are older than him than he does his classmates. I haven't figured out how to help him with that - or whether I even should. I don't know whether it's better to hold back and let him make those connections when and if he wants to - or if I should encourage him to make play dates. Certainly he plays just fine with the kids his age at recess - and tells me all about it when he gets into the Mini-van of Awesome (TM) after school. But there's no one I would identify as his best friend. And I don't honestly know. Is that my fault?
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