Nourishing The Mother

Friendships are one of the first places our children meet the raw edges of relationship: loyalty, exclusion, conflict, repair and belonging. And if you’re a parent watching from the sidelines, it can stir up everything. In this conversation, Julie and Bridget unpack the emotional complexity of children’s friendships, particularly through the tween and teenage years, where identity, social power and belonging start to take shape. They explore the difference between protecting our children and rescuing them, the courage required to teach accountability, and why sometimes the most powerful thing we can do as parents is step back and allow our children to learn how relationships actually work.In this episode we discuss:• Why our children’s friendships can trigger such a deep emotional response in parents…especially mothers• The different ways boys and girls often develop socially and how this shapes their friendship dynamics• Why the tween years are a “trying on” period for identity, belonging and social power• T