3/30 How I mom: Invite your kids’ friends over when they are young and when they are older. Make it easy for your kids’ friends to come over. Just invite. And make it easy for them to say yes.
This year’s Halloween is the first time in over 25 years that I didn’t have a child out trick-or-treating. My youngest child, my son Gus, is 15 and last year he and a few of his buddies trick-or-treated just a little bit in our neighborhood and in a few other places. They were met with a few comments suggesting that they are getting a bit old — which bothered me — but the inevitable was written on the wall; I just knew this year my son would not be trick-or-treating.
(Ah, they grow up.)
To help give Gus an idea as to what to do, I told him I had made chili, which has been my Halloween tradition for years when the kids were growing up. I bought a couple of fresh loaves of bread from Market of Choice, and made homemade brownies as well.
My son thanked me for the invite but instead, he and his friends went to eat at our local Spectator Pizza.
A couple of hours later, after our last trick-or-treaters claimed the large bags of Haribo Gummy Bears and Mamba’s save what I set aside for my own kids, I texted Gus and told him I made brownies here for him and his friends, and that I would give everyone a ride home.
They took me up on my offer to come over and my husband picked them up at the local Safeway near Spectator; they took me up on my offer, arriving after 9 p.m.
It was fun to see the four boys hanging out at first on the couch talking Halloween and their favorite types of candy and who was out trick-or-treating; they moved over to the island in the kitchen where I served them homemade fudge and Nutella brownies with milk. Their conversation jumped around from school and classes to friends to sports and teachers.
I love filling my home with friends of my kids’ friends. You get to know them in a casual setting, and you get to hear their conversation and be a part of it, by yourself asking questions is the key. The social part of parenting is vital to raising rounded children.
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How about you? When do you have your kids’ friends over? Related to your kids’s buddies, how do you mom? #howyoumom30 #howimom30
