The “Mom” Friend: Every Mom’s Favorite In Their Teens’ Barkada

Remember your teen’s ever-responsible friend? Those are their “mom” friends.

We, moms, have different ways in remembering our kids’ friends and their barkadas. The chubby one, the short one, the white one, the matino one, “anak ni ganito”, “pinsan ni ganyan” — unfortunately, having a mental load means we’re not good at keeping up with names. But there’s always that one friend we single out among them. They’re the ones who keep our teens out of trouble. They’re always well-mannered, looking out for your teens’ interest, and the best part is: they’re the ones who soothe our anxiety when they go out with your teens.

Moms, these friends have a title. We know them as the “Mom” Friend.

Every Mom’s Favorite Among Her Teen’s Friends: The Mom Friend

While we figure that they’re just best friends, these teens sometimes do more than what is expected. The “mom” friend is the ever-responsible one, especially if our teens are known to be reckless. In a way, they sometimes even declare themselves the “Glorified Yaya” of the group. Sometimes, we hear our teens calling that friend “Mommy (insert nickname here)” or “Mother” or “Mama” as strange as it sounds. While it’s relieving to know that your kid has a responsible friend among them, there’s also a minor caveat: they might know more about our teens than we do!

Where do these kids come from?

A lot of times, these “mom” friend teens may come from families with stricter parents, making them familiar with the tricks of the trade of what kind of questions we’ll ask them. “Where are you going?”, “Who’s going with you?”, “How are you getting there?” — they’re so well-versed with the questions that it’s astonishing that some even prepare PowerPoints for it.

Among their friends, they act as the “safety net”. The “mom” friends also appear as the emotionally resilient teens, the ones with “good grades”, and a clean record. Unfortunately, the “mom” friend is sometimes the one we subconsciously compare our kids to.

But it’s nice to know that there’s someone else out there who cares for our teens as much as we do.

As moms, it’s better to work together with your teens’ friends even if we have some preset biases towards them. Although some of the advice may contrast, we need to remember that the kids might know more about the situation than we do. Especially when it comes to bullying, peers might be more helpful than parents. They’re also more knowledgeable about the environment the bully and your kids are in so they might be a better support than we do. As annoying as it is to stay on the side, there’s relief in realizing that there’s one less person to worry about who will hurt the teens.

More about kids and their peers?

Why Playdates Help In Building Kids’ and Our Barkadas
Tyler Ramos, Pancho Bacarro, and Vito Bacarro Had Their First Playdate!
Understanding Kids and Bullying: A Bias Gone Wrong