Who would have thought that I'll able to find a family friends? A family friends whom we can talk with my wife about our achievements and problems in life. Whom we can share about parenting and work experiences.

I am a kind of person who likes to stay at home. I also don't have vices except playing online games. I seldom go outside of the house and don't have lots of friends. I'm a friendly person but I don't hang out often with them. I mean I don't go to any places with them or have a shot of liquor. I do drink but occasionally only. I've found friends during college and now that I am employed. When I and my wife met, we have same circle of friends. Why? Because I made friends with her friends and I had fun with them especially that I noticed that my wife treasured them.

When we were still girlfriend-boyfriend relationship and don't have yet our son, she and her friends hang out always in just a simple gathering and I went along with them because her friends also have their partners. Until such time that I and their partners became friends and close. My wife is a friendly one and maybe I got it from her since the day that I knew her. The reason also that I always beside her because she's often hurt by her friends and some took advantage of her kindness. Now, I'm telling her to choose those who she like to be friend because not all people she'll encounter are true. And now, we have a little circle of friends because some were already far from us and we have no contact anymore.

We have now a one family friend that we always hang out, might it be in our house or in theirs. We have a simple gathering and have a simple food trip. Why we do such simple gathering? For us to have a short bond time. Actually it was my wife and her friend's plan to have a simple bond once week or twice a month. It doesn't mean we will buy more foods, just a simple food for us is enough. And also, we did this for our children to hang out also since we have little ones who seldom go out our houses. My wife and her friend decided to visit each other for our little ones so that they can have someone to play with.

BOND TIME

Last week, Friday, we went to one of the department store in the next town where there's a playground for kids. We decided to go there and tour our children so that they can enjoy the weekend. Glad that I don't have any duty that day that's why we able to have a short time of bond. To tell you honestly, we were the same having no plenty of money in our pocket. Our money were enough for the fee in the playground and of course for the gasoline and our lunch.

Also, when we went home, we let our children sleep in our houses and my wife's friend called her and told her we're going to have "Toron na Saging" in their house since they still have lots of lumpia wrapper from the last time we had bonding time. So, my wife told her that we're going to buy banana. Fortunately, ripe banana here in our place is not that pricey so with the amount of 50 pesos, we able to have bananas. So, they both cooked the toron but my son will go to the kitchen where my wife was so she decided to look for the two kids in the living area while her friend was the one who cooked the banana. While my friend "pare" also cooked pancit canton which we ate as our dinner and our snack was toron.

You see, our kind of food trip is not that much but to tell you, we really enjoyed the company of each other. It's our kind of stress reliever in our daily lives especially me at work. With them, we able to have a good time and a good talk. Actually today, we supposedly go to the one of churches in the next town but then a sudden problem came because our family friend's daughter got sick yesterday. She was throwing up since dawn and last night she was admitted to the hospital. Before they went to the hospital last night, we able to visit them and see what was the child's condition. Of course, we were worried for the little one. Now she's in the hospital because of low in RBC. We were worried because the little girl don't eat rice since before even now that she's turning 3 years old unlike my son who eat a lot (Thanks to God). She don't like eating solid foods and just relying with milk which we knew is not good. And also, she sleeps late at night like 11 in the evening and wake up at 9 am that maybe the reason why she's having low in Rbc. We were hoping for her to get well soon because all of us were worried. We're already close to each other that's why we felt worried to the little one. My wife keeps on contacting with her friend and asking how the little girl already. And that's the reason we posponed our travel today. We planned to move it next time or maybe this weekend. We were hoping for her fast recovery soon.

Having a family friend helps us a lot. We can talk about our lives and if we have problem, we can have someone to talk to. Honestly, if I and my wife have misunderstanding, she'll go to their house and talk with her friend and her friend also do that vice versa. I and my friend 'pare' just let them do that. Why? It's because at least our wives have someone to talk to if we have problems and misunderstandings. At least we knew that our wives don't go and find someone to talk to aside to the friend we knew. With that, we able to be at ease. And if our wives able to talk to each other, we will reconcile after. The importance also of giving our wives "me time" is a great help for them. That's why everytime our wives told us we will have a short bonding time, we don't say no unless we have urgent things to be done. Just like me, if I am at the school and my wife said that our family friend will come to our house, I see to it that I am done with my paperworks at school so that I can go home early. I won't leave my job undone because I know my wife will get angry if I do so.

If you have already a family, do you have a family friends? How did they affected your family and what they able to contribute?

Thank you for passing by with my post today.
---> Teacher Jeff 🧑‍🏫