Monkey's insight into friendship.

Sometimes he can surprise me. 

Quietly, from the backseat or playing in the lounge, his little voice will pipe up "Mummy, do you know what?"

And tiny pieces of adult wisdom that I wish I had known years ago, pop out...



Most recently, we driving home from kindy, and this was our conversation.

"Mummy, there's a girl at kindy, she doesn't smile at me or talk to me. Even when I use my manners and say hello."
"Oh, that's not very kind is it?"
"No it's not. But do you know what, Mummy?"
"No Bubs, what?"
"It's ok if she doesn't like me. I don't need her to like me, I have my other good friends. They like me and I like them."
"That's very true, you do have lots of really good friends."
"Mummy, I think I will keep saying hello and smiling at her though, because that's just the good thing to do isn't it?"
"It sounds like a good plan."
"Yeah, if I am nice and use my manners anyway, she may start to like me and be my friend and if she doesn't it's ok too. Isn't that right?"

His other take on friendship is that if he doesn't find the person interesting he doesn't want to be their friend. "If I'm not interested in them and what they say, it's not fair to be their friend."

Sometimes, I am floored by what he says and how he processes things that are what I think of as adult concerns...