Helping and guiding our children as they develop social skills is just one of the many challenges of parenting. Most of us want our children to have friends and an active social life, but we want to keep things in perspective too—and help our children learn how to keep things in balance. One area where we can help our children learn to maneuver in the social realm is in balancing out one-on-one friendships and social activities with group socializing.
One-on-one socializing or establishing and maintaining those close and intimate friendships is an important part of life. It is also an important, ongoing developmental process for our children. Learning how to initiate friendships, work through problems, and be a good friend are all lessons that we learn from our one-on-one interactions and friendships. Group socializing is important also, however. Learning how to be part of a group or team, how to behave and feel comfortable at parties and group situations or how to hang out with a group of friends without experiencing too much drama, stress, or jealousy is also an important lesson for the growing up years.
It is not uncommon for individuals to feel more comfortable with one or the other of these types of social interactions. I am sure if you ask yourself, you will probably confess that you feel more at ease either in one-on-one social situations or with a group. We may never feel equally comfortable in both social realms, but learning how to move in both situations requires having the opportunity to learn and practice the different social skills that both require.
As a parent, you can make sure that your child gets those opportunities by encouraging and supporting both group activity and play, and allowing for those more intimate social moments too. While it might be easier to have your child entertain one child at a time, hosting the occasional slumber party or encouraging a group activity to the park or movies is good too.
The more practice and experience our children get with all sorts of different social activities, the more confident and secure they will be come in knowing how to behave and the more they will actually enjoy all the various opportunities for social experiences they will encounter.
See Also: Are Playdates Overrated?