I was at the pool today with a friend, Abby, and two of my cousins, ages seven and almost two (Zoe and Ashley). Zoe went off to play while my friend and I stayed and played with Ashley. Not even a half hour after getting to the pool, Zoe runs up to me and asks me if she can go to the "big pool" to play with her friend, whom she had just met. After some questions about her friend and where they going, as well as letting her know where I would be, I let her go.
Over the three hours we spent at the pool, both Abby and I noticed that this was not the first friend Zoe made at the pool. She made at least three more friends in the time we were there. Abby kept commenting on how easily Zoe made friends, on how easily it is for (most) young kids to make friends, and I began thinking, when did we stop befriending people so easily, so quickly? At what age do we lose our ability to go up to people our age and just start talking to them? What changes? Obviously, we change, and grow up, and our social behavior changes as well. But when it stop becoming socially acceptable to go up to someone and befriend them?*
*I do not mean people who are or seem weird or creepy. I refer to normal people, like those who take their kids to the pool on a hot summer day.
2 comments:
I know what you mean, I think as we get older, we notice the differences more and focus on them, and start paying more attention to what others think of us, nobody wants to be the loner outcast, especially in HS.
Yeah, she's a friendly kid! I think as we get older we're more aware of things. We notice even little differences between ourselves and others and we choose our friends based on the type of people we feel a connection to or that we feel comfortable with. Also, when we're kids we know that strangers are dangerous, but if somebody seems friendly we'll be friends with them. As you get older you realize how creepy people can be and how you really can't just be friends with any stranger, even the ones that seem normal.
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