If you were the same age as your children, could you be friends with them?

What a very interesting question. I have actually thought about this myself a couple of times. I think I could be friends with both of my children. My 17 year old daughter is very upbeat, crazy and spontaneous. She is a little more mature and goal oriented than some kids her age. My 16 year old son is very caring, very compassionate and would do anything to help anybody. He is very outgoing and gets along with most everyone. Like you though, there are occasions where I think I would walk right up to him anf pop him sqare in the face for his attitude.

Wow, this is an interesting (not to mention, fun!) discussion :) You piqued my curiosity and got me thinking too. I know what you mean about teenagers these days! I have two and thinking about it, I guess I might be friends with them but not such that we'll be super close. Although I can somehow relate to their tastes in music, I can't stand the whole "gothic" trend that my 15-year-old is so into nowadays. He loves to wear black, hates to have his hair cut and even puts photos of the grim reaper in his friendster account (go figure!) As to my 13-year-old, the sports buff, I guess we'll connect somehow with the badminton craze. Now my 10-year-old, he's a sweetie. He makes friends easily and is naturally good-natured. We'd probably bond when it comes to watching movies or simply hanging out together to talk and play cards. After all, these are his activities almost every afternoon when he comes home from school! He unwinds by going to his friends' houses here in the village and comes home after an hour or two, satisfied with the companionship and smiling :)

wow this is an excellent question, very original. I think that I probably would know my son, if I was his age, talk to him and such but we would never be really good friends. He is a loner, and I don't particularly like his lifestyle, it is so different from mine.

I only have 1 child, a 15 year old son. If we were the same age, we would definitely be friends. We have many of the same interests. We both like horror movies, video games, and classic rock music. He is the type of person I was looking for as a friend at that age. It also helps that he's choosy about friends. He doesn't like to be around people who get into trouble. He appreciates the people he does choose as friends, doing anything he can for them. He's a bit of a clown, but only when it's appropriate. He's surprisingly mature for his age, and has a good head on his shoulders. It's often hard to balance being a parent and being a friend to your child, but I do my best with my son. I give him the advice that he needs, but find he's usually headed in the right direction. He's easy to talk to, and I'm proud to call him my son.

Yes i think that i could be friends with all my children. Although it would probably take awhile to befriend my 16 year old as he is very shy. But once you become friends he is a very interesting person as he is very clever. My 15 year old sometimes can be very cheeky but he is very caring towards his friends and is always there for them so i would not mind being his friend at times. My 11 year old is very sporty and his the ability to make friends with anyone. So i would enjoy being her friend as she is so friendly and willing to give anyone a chance. When my seven year old is in a good mood i would love to be his friend. But when he goes into one of his huffs it would be a different matter. As i don't know if i could put up with that as he drives me mad when he does that. And i would absolutely love to be a friend of my two year old as he is so bouncy and active. He would keep anyone amused for hours.

Interesting question, you got me thinking on this one. With my eldest daughter (12 years ) I could definately see myself being best friends with her if I was her age. She has the sweetest personality and she is very funny too. She would do anything for you and you know you can always trust her. If I was her friend I would have so much fun as we would sing together on sing star, go to discos and gossip on the phone. With my 4 year old daughter if I was 4 too I can see myself being friends with her but in moderation lol. She can be very sweet and she is a little character. However she would probably boss me around alot and annoy me, which would really get on my nerves if I was 4. We would have alot of laughter as she is so cheeky and I think we could run a muck together. Hard to imagine being 6 months old, but if I was I definately could be friends with my youngest. She is so placid, and she laughs alot. We could sit there laughing together.

I got thinking after I read your discussion and I guess I would be friends with my children if I were their age. My 8 year old is an extrovert and is well-behaved (except at home).....and his thought process is similar to mine and would be just the kind of person I would make friends with. My almost two year old is very friendly with children (and shy with adults). He always makes the first move to interact with other children and tries to engage them in different games. So, it would be easy to be friends with him.

I only have one child right now that is 2 years old. Yes, I could be his friend. He is really a sweet child. I know he has those terrible 2 moments but it's usually only always in front of mommy and daddy. Anytime I have anybody watch him they say how good he is and how well he listens to them. And when we have friends over that have children he plays so good with them. He even likes to share with his toys. He has a great little personality.

My kids are only 3 and 1 so I guess I could be. They just like playing and I guess it really wouldn't matter as long as I didn't try and take their toy from them but then if I did they would get over it and move on to a new toy after a little while anyway. lol Funny how kids are when they are young. They are so fun to watch.

heres the scary thing yes i would be an I am not saying that cause they are my kids both my girls have alot of me in them my 15 year old is very outspoken but very friendly to everyone an my yuongest is fun loving loves dancing around the house all the time an she is also outspoken she has a habit of speking out for those who can't speak now maybe things wil change when the get older but now yes to my 15 year old an 13 year old

Not daft at all. What an interesting and fun question! I have a 13 year old. He is much more outgoing than I was at that age, and he is known for "taking in" new kids at school as friends and getting them to join in. And he is great with shy people. Very empathetic in addition to being athletic. So I think we would have been good friends at that age. What and interesting concept!

What a thought provoking question! My children are already in their 40s, so I'll answer the question considering their children my children. Yes, I could be friends with our youngest grandson, age 6. He is smart, lively, interested in everything, and genuinely likes people, all people. I probably would also be interested in his brother, age 16, although he is somewhat of a loner. He is smart, musical, and loves to cook. My daughter's children are more of a challenge. I would probably not be friends with her son, age 9, because all he's interested in is NASCAR and computer games. I probably would be friends with her middle child, a 13 year old girl. She's a people person, interested in all the girlie things, including cooking. I don't know if I could be friends with her 18 year old female college student. She's not shy, but she's not a people person like her sister. She's an excellent student if she's interested in a subject, but barely makes a passing grade if she's not. She pretty well grew up in the garage where her father repairs and refinishes automobiles and cares very little about girlie things. She hates both cooking and laundry. Her car is always clean and shiny, but her room looks like a pig stye.

This is a very interesting question, I don't know, I never thought about this before. Thank you, now I'll do some thinking.

Good question! I've often thought of this before. I always tell my 9 year old that if I was the same age as him we would be really good freinds. He is funny, fun, caring and adventurous. I'm not sure about my 14 year old though. He is one of the popular kids at school and seems to fit in with everyone but our interests are very different. He is smart, a deep thinker, very into sports and mechanics and can also be moody, I prefer to be freinds with people who are fun, spontaneous, and can laugh at anything.

[i]Hi gemini, When I was in College up to this time, Dad and Mom were like our friends, neighbor will always give us compliment how close are we..Sister and I will visit them twice a month from work since we are in the city and we can spend 5 hours talking and just laughing...It was different when we were young where Dad used to be quite strict.. SO, in my case, if ever I will have a child, I will and I love to be close to them..In the family, I am the "brat" type sometimes...and all of them know how to handle me..But, they know that I am sweet also, I just have this attitude to be the "pain of the butt" sometimes..hahahhaha![/i]

probably not my kids are a bit aloof they take after me so if we were neighbors or anything we would probably keep to ourselves. :)

It's funny to watch your kids grow up, move through the stages of their development ... I could never have been friends with my son while he was 13-15, annoying and a bit too peacock-like for my liking!!! Now that's he's recently turned 18, I love nothing more than meeting up with him for lunch and just spending time with him as friends. It probably helps that he left home a year ago to serve in the Forces, so I had a year of being broken-hearted while he was away from home for lengthy periods (i.e. 8 weeks) ...

Well, my daughter is only approaching 10 months of age. We have a neighbor who has a 10-month old baby boy, and he seems to have no problems making friends with my kid. In fact, he even misses her every time we're away for an extended period of time, so when he sees her again he becomes extremely happy.:D With that said, I think I'll have no problem being friends with my kid if I was her age, especially since she's so darn pretty (if I do say so myself), and everyone who has seen her agrees with me.

i think its ok to be friends with ur kids but should set limits...coz sometimes they have to know that u are the boss or u are the mother or father here...not them...

Once people understand what a good relationship is based and are not worried about being single or not they can start building good relationship