As someone with a 5-year old, please define “children,” because that is definitely not how they see their friends. They had one other child at 2.5 years, in preschool, who they both just naturally GRAVITATED to each other - not because they were getting anything out of it than mutual friendship. That friend has since moved away, devastating, and they do have other friends, but all other friendships pale in comparison. It’s been amazing to watch how true friendship will just blossom randomly in the world.

This. I have run fundraising offices in multiple cities. There’s often one or two “trashy” people in each office, who could learn people’s names but don’t, who insist that everything they do is perfect and others need to change to see it, who love being loud and living large themselves but won’t respect other’s choices or beliefs even in shared professional spaces. They litter. They steal from people they know. They often hide behind a veneer of religious faith, to deflect criticism. They refuse to learn, or reflect upon their actions with anything but praise.

Have a very large vocabulary and go out of my way to avoid utilizing the same noun or adjective more than once in a conversation. Also keeping multiple conversations on different topics going at once with any people in the same room, a habit I learned/inherited from my ADHD physician mother who was always on calls while talking to my brother and I and also making dinner at the same time.

Gotta make the nest! I do this when sleeping alone, and also will lift my feet for just a moment to let the blankets swing under and complete the human burrito feeling. I just love to feel completely held, supported, nested, wrapped.