As kids grow up they evolve in many areas; some awesome and some very complex for us parents. It can be extremely difficult and dangerous to attempt to keep up, as with short notice you as a parent has just insulted your own child just for thinking that her BFF was the sam girl as yesterday. To be honest, I don’t even remember this phase from my own childhood, but perhaps that just states that I was a sad kid growing up.
One term that has me utterly perplexed is the BFF.
Initially I must admit that I had no idea what BFF the acronym stood for, and when I tried to use the phrase with my kids I ended up looking extremely uncool. Perhaps it was because when i used it, it was completely out of context.
- Best Friday Food
- Bobby Found Frida
- Books For Freedom
- Bad Freaking Feast
- Bees Freedom Foundations
It was only when I actually challenged my daughter and asked her what it actually meant. Being a pretty hip guy, if I should say it myself, it’s painful and embarrassing to ask your daughter for clarity, but it had to be done. Of course she rolled her eyes, stared at me with disbelief and grunted “it means Best Friends Forever!”.
AHA! That makes so much more sense now, or does it?
At the age of 9, kids change friends faster than I can eat a portion of fries. How could that possible be Best Friends Forever? Aren’t BFFs meant to be friends for like forever?
I’m trying to keep up with her BFFs, but it’s actually a very challenging task for any parent, especially with girls. When dropping her off at school I try to be cool and wave to her BFFs, only to be smacked on the arm by my daughter stating that they are no longer BFFs. How am I suppose to know that girl A borrowed a pencil from another girl, who happened to be a frienemy and now they are no longer BFFs!!
It becomes so complicated when she explains to me what happened, who her BFFs are these days and what they do when they hang out at school.
When I grew up I had many friends and we played in the yard or after school. If we had a problem, we had a quick little fight and then we played on. We didn’t dwell on gestures or hairdo, but more if the guys we hung out with were good cowboys, soldiers and/or had cool new toys.
These days, girls dump their BFFs for various reasons and some of these breakups can be painful – to a point where parents get involved. This happened to us some months ago, where our daughter didn’t want to be BFF with another girl, which resulted in a very upset girl who in turn told her mum. Her mum then called us to see how we could patch the differences so they could be BFFs again.
Most of the time, there are 2-3 girls that hang out all the time, who increase and decrease their circle of trust, but the core group remains. That’s what awesome and that’s what makes Best Friends Forever.