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Original poster

Your parents friend's children

23 replies

Dontbestupidagain · 15/06/2019 23:22

We spend a lot of time socialising with friends, many of whom have children of a similar age to ours. They have grown up together and some of them have really strong bonds. I was wondering whether their friendships will endure into adulthood.
We spent some time with other families growing up although not loads. I am not friends at all with any of them now.
Just curious to see what others experiences are?

OP posts:
Hollowvictory · 15/06/2019 23:23

I don't know who my parents friends are. But I've got friends I've had for 40 years.

Pipandmum · 15/06/2019 23:26

I’m not friends with any of my parents’ friend’s kids. But they didn’t go to the same school as me so didn’t see them much. I’m friends with my children’s friend’s parents - that relationship may endure going about it that way round.

BicycleDynamo · 15/06/2019 23:32

My mum has no friends. She has siblings and I am friends with my cousins, though we all live some distance apart.

Skiingismylife · 15/06/2019 23:34

No, not friends. Still, lovely memories of them all.

HeronLanyon · 15/06/2019 23:51

I am friends still with a few children of parents friends (who didn’t go to my schools and/or were not ‘my’ friends). Several who I hadn’t kept in touch with came to my ma’s funeral recently. A couple with their own elderly parent/friend of my ma, some ‘in place of their own frail/ill parent friend of my ma and some just on their own to pay respects.

Made me think there will be funerals I will want to go to similarly out of deep family history respect type feeling.

Not sure quite the light lovely scenario expected by your thread op but very good to see and comforting also. Some have remained unexpectedly important.

BlackboardMonitorVimes · 15/06/2019 23:54

No. But I hear the intricacies of their lives all the time. DM thinks I give a shit that the girl I knew when I was five just left her DH. I don't.

DramaAlpaca · 15/06/2019 23:54

I lost touch with my parents' friends' children after I grew up & left home. Our lives have gone in very different directions since.

daisydoooo · 15/06/2019 23:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Towelsareblue · 15/06/2019 23:57

Not their children but still see some of my parents' friends who I remember as a child which is lovely. They're in their 80's now and would have been in their '40's then which seems incredible. I like hearing about all their children - it's lovely. I wonder if my own will feel the same later on in life.

MrsSchadenfreude · 16/06/2019 00:02

I’m still quite close friends with someone I’ve known since we were babies- our parents were friends. We were very close in our teens and early 20s, but then I moved abroad and he got married. We still meet up periodically, but his wife can’t stand me, so he usually doesn’t tell her if we meet up for a drink, as he gets a lot of grief from her. I’ve no idea why- they’ve been married for 30 years and DH and I for 25.

There was another boy I was quite close to as a child - we used to go on holiday with his parents and we were both only children, so it worked out well. He married young, and I haven’t seen him since his wedding which was about 35 years ago!

Symbol · 16/06/2019 00:02

I'm good friends with 2 of my parents' friends' kids.

ShirazSavedMySanity · 16/06/2019 00:03

Yes! My parents were good friends with another couple who had sons. One of the sons was my boyfriend when I was around 13. When we were 16ish we lost touch (no mobile phones then) but we made contact via FB around 6 years ago in our 30’s. I’m now teaching his DD at primary school so we have lots of contact.

coles85 · 16/06/2019 00:04

I appear to be the odd one out, but yes; I'm still friends with the kids of my parents friends. Some are more acquaintances but others I'd class as friends. I no longer live in the town where we grew up, and neither do a lot of them, but we keep in touch & visit when we can. Some are only Facebook friends, but others I see more often & have been on holiday with them, to weddings, baby showers etc. Most of them were my mums NCT (or equivalent) pals when I was born, so over 30 years of friendships for them and us. So it does happen! But we were never forced to be friends, it happened naturally.

FionasWineShow · 16/06/2019 00:05

I'm still good friends with one of the children of my parents' friends. Her brother also, but to a much lesser extent. We see each other a fair amount - not best friends, but good friends.

Other than that, not really. I am in touch with others via FB, or have lost touch completely.

I think life moves on, most friend tend to come and go, and then there will be a few that you remain close to throughout life.

Skittlesandbeer · 16/06/2019 00:08

I’m always amazed that the European side of my family have such strong friendships with family friends- some are 4th generation.

They have holiday houses near each other, and I suppose that helps. And there are fewer elite schools and universities, so they all end up there together too.

I live somewhere where you’re much more likely to be thrown together with people of different culture or upbringing than you. So you make friends through mother’s groups, workplace, hobbies, on holiday or just walking the dog.

It honestly makes me shudder to imagine living the same life as my parents, grandparents. And everyone living in each other’s pockets. If my mother hadn’t emigrated, I certainly would have!

Goldmandra · 16/06/2019 00:16

I'm still in touch with a couple and one was my children's godmother. She died very young and it felt very hard remembering our lives together right back through our childhoods.

Amiable · 16/06/2019 00:26

I am. Dad was in the military, and we made some strong friendships along the way. I have probably 10 people who officially were kids of my parents friends, but are still friends of mine, 40-odd years on!

HarleyS · 16/06/2019 00:36

Kids of parents friends are like cousin's now, perhaps due to the parental involvement

HarleyS · 16/06/2019 00:38

I also think those friendships you are more respectful of / more aware of because of parents

SudowoodoVoodoo · 16/06/2019 01:13

Never had any. Parents' friends weren't in the local community, and most that did have children were teenagers/ adults before I was born.

I'm assuming where this has happened, it's been in very stable communities where people settle locally and rarely move in/ out.

DMiL often refers to children of her friends and DH is clueless about who she's talking about as he moved away 25+ years ago, and most of them were older and friends with his siblings rather than him.

SrSteveOskowski · 16/06/2019 01:28

Not really in touch with any of them now, but I did shag the son of my parents friends when I was about 18 and he was about 20.
Pretty sure none of the parents know about that one Grin

monsieurmarius · 16/06/2019 01:29

I still have vague contact with them, yes, but we occasionally still meet up once a year for weddings/anniversaries/family bbq etc. We live too far to meet up just as friends so it would always be as families together. I'm 24 so it isn't long really since we were all friends as teens anyway. But no, our lives went different paths so we wouldn't be true friends now. I kinda view them as cousins but with less responsibility to stay in touch if that makes sense.

cstaff · 16/06/2019 01:33

My oldest friend, we are friends from whatever age you start to make friends, maybe 1 or 2 - we grew up on the same road and our mums are good friends also. We are all still going strong after over 50 years of hanging out and longer for our mums.

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