Sarah and I started reading “The Care and Keeping of Friends” last night. So far we’ve covered where to meet people, what sort of friend to look for, and how to be yourself. It occurred to me, while reading, that making a new friend at 11 is very much like trying to meet a potential date as an adult.

As singles, we have to figure out what sort of relationship we are looking for – something serious, something casual, something long term. We have to get out there and meet people and places like club meetings, the park, or while doing …read more

My daughter, Sarah, is going into the 6th grade. We have lived in the same neighborhood for all but the first 3 months of her life. She has attended one school throughout this time. She is beautiful, unique, smart, creative, and she really picked up some skills on the basketball court this past Winter. She does, however, sometimes find it hard to get along with kids her own age.
She’s spent entirely too much time on the computer this Summer and not enough outside running around. I try to get her out there, but she’s back soon with “It’s too hot, …read more

Sarah came home a few minutes ago. She was crying and I followed her into her room to figure out what was up.  She wouldn’t say anything at first, but finally it came out that she’s very upset because the friend that she has been hanging around with told her to “shut up.”
I don’t like hearing, “shut up,” either. It’s rude and abrupt. There’s got to be a better way to halt the flow of words, but so far I’ve found that “enough” and “shut it” aren’t very good alternatives.
Sarah was angry and wanted a chance to “vent” to someone. …read more

Aly, one of the other realtionship writers here at Blisstree, wrote about an issue that came up with her friend the other day. She was confused and unsure how to handle the situation.  Adult friendships can be tricky.  There’s not always a clear path to take, it’s easy to misread things or second-guess yourself. 
Remember when you were a kid, how easy it was to make friends?  You were offered up a new selection every Fall when you returned to school or you could hang with the kids in your neighborhood. Either way, there were so many options and the rules …read more

I read something today at cnn.com about the “Real Meaning of Love Sayings.” 
One “love saying” questioned whether or not your spouse should be your best friend. It got me thinking about my past marriage and relationships. I think I’d like to be married again someday – I know I’d like to be in a committed relationship again some day. Would I need that person to be my best friend? 
Here’s what the relationship experts had to say:
Pepper Schwartz, sociologist: I agree. I think you’re asking a lot of your marriage to have the level of confidentiality, truthfulness, and disclosure that a …read more

If a man finds you attractive, you cannot be friends.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Uh, violent reactions perhaps?
I’m one of them who thinks that it is possible to be just friends with a guy. But I have to admit that if we are to bring “attraction” into the equation, it can definitely complicate the friendship. Hands down. Especially when everything’s one-sided. Ugh. Train-wreck.
Here’s the argument.

I actually went ahead and did what the he said I should do to “ease my doubts” about this theory. I asked the questions and I got an almost-verbatim set of responses.

According to a recent Match.com survey of more than 1,500 single people, one in three said they wished love would come with a guarantee. In fact, when asked which things in life they wished came with a guarantee, love ranked higher than friendship, jobs and financial security.
Surprisingly, the same survey indicated that while many aspire for a guaranteed love, they are not taking advantage of opportunities to meet new people and aren’t optimistic about their chances of finding love. More than 50 percent of those surveyed did not go on a single date in a typical six-month period, and nearly …read more

Fresh from watching Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey’s movie, Failure to Launch, I write about the topic of getting the approval of your partner’s friends. Parker’s character, Paula, called it “The Nod”, which basically is referring to the literal nodding of the friends. It can be interpreted to them saying that their friend whom she’s dating has made a good decision in going out with her, which then caused her to assume that he’s on the road to falling for her and the possibility for the relationship to grow serious is much higher.
Let me explain it further in …read more

There will come a time in a relationship that you and your partner will face the “next-level” predicament. But I’m curious. What exactly are the levels in a relationship?
I’ll state the obvious: Acquaintance, Friends, Dating, Exclusivity, Moving In, Engagement and then, lastly, Marriage. These are the levels that partners generally go through. I hope I didn’t miss anything. Anyway, some levels are skipped and they even have ’sub-levels’ like in terms of intimacy, physical and what not. Though, I can’t help but wonder, how important levels are to individuals in the dating scene?
For individuals who consider it important, several questions …read more

I’m noticing that it’s becoming quite popular these days [well -- at least, in my country] that some individuals who are non-couples say that they’re “just friends” even when it’s just pure crap. I mean, who are you kidding? Why be a hypocrite and say “we’re just friends” when in reality you both like each other to the point that both of you spend that much quality time with each other that everyone else may consider it anything but platonic. Heh.
I think it’s silly.