Friendship in the toddler age - is it like the big ones?
We moved away almost two years ago. In another city. Even before the move, as a mother, I had great abdominal pain, as my two-year-old daughter would cope with the loss of familiar surroundings and loved ones. Again and again, adults told me that she is still so small and everything is quickly forgotten.
Does a kindergarten friendship survive a move?
Of course, I tried to find some advice to encourage my mother's heart. On the page Kindergartenpaedagogik.de, the experts actually say that kindergarten friendships do not stand up to much stress. If the girlfriend moves to another location and the parents do not support further contact, the girlfriend is soon forgotten, and another child takes her place.
Sounds logical. Nevertheless, I still had stomach ache. After all, this little man had already a solid clique of children, they had all chosen themselves and almost love-at-first-sight-like on the main playground.
I'll never forget how she saw her friend Dilli for the first time and the two were instantly inseparable.
They shared snack boxes, the sand toys and defended each other. There was also a fight, but it was still her BFF. And so Dilli and these other little people became integral parts of their daily lives. And her heart.
But even there, experts have a very logical explanation: From a longer-lasting friendships for many children become an emotionally important relationship. Even as a baby, children like to make contact with children. It can be seen that babies respond to a child's face over the cradle with joyous surprise, with a smile and laughter, with kicking and hand movements.
The first real children's friendships are supposedly formed only from the age of three.
So mostly with the entrance to the kindergarten. Children's friendships are often very short-lived. They include a game sequence or a morning. Children quickly make friends and close them just as quickly. Allegedly because they take in every respect what they need right now, so the opinion of the educators.
So we moved. One and a half hours away. Not much for adults but out of reach for small children. The first half year was awful.
My two-year and three-month-old daughter was very homesick and suffered a lot from being separated from her friends.
She cried a lot and also said that she wanted to go home. She kept asking about Dilli and her friends. Of course there was a great kindergarten and also in the neighborhood a lot of the same age children. And with one or the other it sparked as well as with her best friends in the old homeland.
But to this day she has not forgotten her first heart-people. And even if we do not see each other often, the longing for them and the love for them has not changed.
So my experience is: it's just like the big ones with the very little ones. There is no expertise for the heart.
