kids and friendships

I have three children who each have distinct personalities.  Each one has experienced the ups and downs of friendships.  Hugo, my middle child, is experiencing some painful lessons right now.  He has lots of friends.  Many of his close friends play sports and are usually on more than one sport team at a time.  This results in very busy schedules and difficulty in making plans to just "hang out".

Hugo is only playing soccer one day per week.  He has a lot of free time!  He calls friends regularly to hang out and many times they are not available.  He repeatedly gets dumped by one of his friends when this kid gets a better offer or other plans.  It pisses me off to see my child get treated poorly by a friend.  Even worse, Hugo keeps going back for more of the same treatment.  I can only do so much to get him to understand.  He must learn this the hard way, I guess.

In the meantime, I can offer words of encouragement and comfort when he gets treated like crap. I can also encourage him to work on new friendships and ask other kids to hang out.  Time will only tell!