Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children

by Michael Thompson

$16.00

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Author: Michael Thompson

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Paperback:
ISBN 10: 034544289X
ISBN 13: 978-0345442895

Hardcover:
ISBN 10: 0345438094
ISBN 13: 978-0345438096

"With uncommon sensitivity and intelligence... [this] book offers parents a window into their kids' often tumultuous relationships with classmates." - Time

Friends broaden our children’s horizons, share their joys and secrets, and accompany them on their journeys into ever wider worlds. But friends can also gossip and betray, tease and exclude. Children can cause untold suffering, not only for their peers but for parents as well. In this wise and insightful book, psychologist Michael Thompson, Ph.D., and children’s book author Catherine O’Neill Grace, illuminate the crucial and often hidden role that friendship plays in the lives of children from birth through adolescence.

Drawing on fascinating new research as well as their own extensive experience in schools, Thompson and Grace demonstrate that children’s friendships begin early–in infancy–and run exceptionally deep in intensity and loyalty. As children grow, their friendships become more complex and layered but also more emotionally fraught, marked by both extraordinary intimacy and bewildering cruelty. As parents, we watch, and often live through vicariously, the tumult that our children experience as they encounter the “cool” crowd, shifting alliances, bullies, and disloyal best friends.

Best Friends, Worst Enemies brings to life the drama of childhood relationships, guiding parents to a deeper understanding of the motives and meanings of social behavior. Here you will find penetrating discussions of the difference between friendship and popularity, how boys and girls deal in unique ways with intimacy and commitment, whether all kids need a best friend, why cliques form and what you can do about them.

Filled with anecdotes that ring amazingly true to life, Best Friends, Worst Enemies probes the magic and the heartbreak that all children experience with their friends. Parents, teachers, counselors–indeed anyone who cares about children–will find this an eye-opening and wonderfully affirming book.

"Relevant and compelling... Parents will be wiser for reading." - The Boston Globe

"The stories in this book come from many perspectives - those of therapists, educators, and parents. The wise, kind authors give us a fresh and cogent analysis of this critically important issue." - Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of Reviving Ophelia

Review

"The stories in this book come from many perspectives — those of therapists, educators, and parents. The wise, kind authors give us a fresh cogent analysis of this critically important issue. I recommend BEST FRIENDS, WORST ENEMIES to all those who work with and love kids."

— Mary Pipher, Ph.D., author of REVIVING OPHELIA

From the Inside Flap

Friends broaden our childrens horizons, share their joys and secrets, and accompany them on their journeys into ever wider worlds. But friends can also gossip and betray, tease and exclude. Children can cause untold suffering, not only for their peers but for parents as well. In this wise and insightful book, psychologist Michael Thompson, Ph.D., and childrens book author Catherine ONeill Grace, illuminate the crucial and often hidden role that friendship plays in the lives of children from birth through adolescence.

Drawing on fascinating new research as well as their own extensive experience in schools, Thompson and Grace demonstrate that childrens friendships begin earlyin infancyand run exceptionally deep in intensity and loyalty. As children grow, their friendships become more complex and layered but also more emotionally fraught, marked by both extraordinary intimacy and bewildering cruelty. As parents, we watch, and often live through vicariously, the tumult that our children experience as they encounter the cool crowd, shifting alliances, bullies, and disloyal best friends.

Best Friends, Worst Enemies brings to life the drama of childhood relationships, guiding parents to a deeper understanding of the motives and meanings of social behavior. Here you will find penetrating discussions of the difference between friendship and popularity, how boys and girls deal in unique ways with intimacy and commitment, whether all kids need a best friend, why cliques form and what you can do about them.

Filled with anecdotes that ring amazingly true to life, Best Friends, Worst Enemies probes the magic and the heartbreak that all children experience with their friends. Parents, teachers, counselorsindeed anyone who cares about childrenwill find this an eye-opening and wonderfully affirming book.

From the Hardcover edition.

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Adolescent Psychology

Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children