When parents say their child is their best friend

84 replies

ClickClackClock · 29/06/2025 12:44

Is this not weird. Perhaps when you are both adults but why is your best friend a 2 year old?

OP posts:

BleachedJumper · 29/06/2025 12:57

Meh, I called my old dog my best friend.

It’s just a shorthand statement of affection.

neverbeenskiing · 29/06/2025 12:56

I work with children and see a lot of situations where parents wanting to be their child's "best friend" leads to lack of boundaries, being in denial about problems and children being given more control and choice than is healthy for their age range.

TinyTempest · 29/06/2025 12:55

Yeah I don't really think they mean they share each others clothes and go clubbing together.

Hadalifeonce · 29/06/2025 12:55

I cringe.......

ThePhantomoftheEcobubbleOpera · 29/06/2025 12:54

I can't get worked up about people who are warm and affectionate with their children, even if it is phrased weirdly.

BookArt55 · 29/06/2025 12:52

I take it that they enjoy spending time with them, that they are interested in what they say, that they laugh together.

I don't really see it as a big issue, just a term of endearment. I don't think adults have 'best' friends, but kids like that term.

pikkumyy77 · 29/06/2025 12:48

Yes its weird. I have always had a delightful relationship with my two dds, now in their late twenties, but I do try not to burden them with the role if a best friend. I think they consider me a best friend and can tell me anything. But I don’t lean on them or tell them anything.

However I think its important not to be too censorious of other people. When I think if how much fun they were as toddlers and how dear they are to me now I don’t think its wrong to say we are best friends in an age appropriate way.

Ponoka7 · 29/06/2025 12:46

It's just part of the shit people say. It's odd, but sometimes people don't realise what they say.

notacooldad · 29/06/2025 12:45

It's just a figure of speech, I presume
(Hopefully anyway!)

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