Friendship Differences

Here's the response of a 10-year-old:

1. I don't really know how to answer the first question. I'm really sorry about that. I did answer the rest of the questions, though. I tried to answer the questions as best as I could.

2. Well, I usually don't talk to that person for a day or two. Yes, after a while I'll apologize to them or they will to me,depends on the situation.

3. Paige,Jillian,Olivia,sometimes Amber,and Jesse, my neighbor. Sometimes I go to Jesse's house after school during the spring and early summer. Paige sometimes comes over on the weekends.But not that much anymore. People that I invite to my party are people I usually hang out with,or close friends at school.

4. I would say Amber. Everyone in class thinks she's cool. Amber is very nice. Amber's popular because she has a lot of friends. She's not the mean popular. She's also very smart and cute.

And here is the response of a 19-year-old:

1. The leap from acquaintance to friend occurs, in my mind, when one acquires the desire to actively seek out the other, instead of merely enjoying chance encounters. With very few exceptions, trust too is usually essential for true friendship, often manifest in confidence or easy-going.

2. Fights rarely split true friendships permanently. Usually fights between friends erupt either because of jealousy, ideological differences, or prolonged proximity (which can make even the closest of friends snippy). The latter "fights" can usually be resolved with a simple simmer-down period, after which everything returns to normal (these tend to be more common). True friends usually have conquered ideological differences and accept their differing views, but spurts of disagreement are not uncommon. These too are usually swept under the table, unless the disagreement has prolonged practical implications. Jealousy scuffles are dangerous, but if friends are mutually respectful they are not fatal. These sorts of fights might arise over romantic disputes, skills-based achievement, or anything of that nature. Though these take the most work - usually a necessary cathartic confession wrecks havoc for a bit - understanding often heals even these sorts of problems over time.

3. Group 1: Kevin, Boysam
Group 2: Kael, Mike, Rin, Josh
Peripherals: Richard, Sclaire
A) The periphs, usually (just for availability reasons).
B) All of the above
C) Group 1 or 2, depending on the party.

4. In group 1, probably Kevin, but mostly because he just organizes everything, so he's sorta at the center. So I'd say it's because of his assertiveness, In group 2, probably myself, because of confidence and humor. For the others it's not really applicable. The notion of popularity among close friends really sort of seems to fade out after high school. In large acquaintance groups it's still there, of course, and in work situations it often arises. But healthy friendships are founded on equality, to a certain extent - qualified, asymmetrical but balanced equality.

Monkeys and Harlow

First off, Harlow was pretty interesting. He was emotionally unstable, experiencing bouts of depression and a lack of identity, possibly due to his distant relationship with his mother. And it turns out his most famous experiment happened because he fell out of love with his wife Clara. Interesting. But his experiments, more specifically the cloth mommy thing, were landmarks in the psychology field. He set up a wire monkey that provided nourishment and a cloth monkey that was just cute and soft. The monkey was okay when the wire monkey was taken away, but when the cloth monkey was taken away, the baby had a spaz attack. It was even shown that the baby monkey felt just as strongly about the cloth monkey as its real mother. The only problem was that the monkeys who were mothered by the cloth monkeys were extremely antisocial. Oops. And it didn't help that his next wife Peggy was violently ill with cancer. This guy can't win. The he created the "rape rack"-- ew-- and got some monkeys pregnant. Not himself. And then his wife died, and he won an award, but he was obviously very upset. That's basically it.

Parent Blog

When Shannon was preschool aged, she had big bright eyes, long hair with curls at the bottom, and was "full of beans" as my mother would say! She was absolutely adorable (no bias of course...) and even strangers were drawn to her. When we were at the mall one day browsing the Hallmark store, an older gentleman came up to her and began talking with her. She charmed him with the sparkle in her eye and cheery personality until he insisted on buying her a beanie baby. After much hesitation, we thanked him graciously and went on our way.

She was know as "Papa's Dolly" to her grandfather and the apple of his eye. Shannon loved anything shiny and would peruse the house finding things she could carry around and then hide...some never to be seen again!

I had a memory just today looking out the window at the snow. I could picture her at the top of the snowdrift in the middle of Buttermilk circle, an accumulation of days, weeks and sometimes months of endless snow. Her tiny little head popping up and down as she climbed to and fro atop the giant frozen mountain and slid down! It was bittersweet, the awareness that she is growing up and time marches on, and thankful to have such a wonderful person in my life and that I have such cherished memories and more to come!

At age 3, Shannon didn't have time for naps, there were far too many things to explore to waste precious time on that. When her busy days came to an end, her mind would wander, and I would snuggle up with her and rub her back until she fell asleep. MMMMmmm. Nice thoughts.