You had the answer in kindergarten

Friendships can be complicated, especially when you throw in factors outside of your friendship like kids, a spouse, work, school, church, neighborhood and every other social dynamic. On the positive side, all these elements can create a wider net of support, love and friendship for you and your family. But they can also create unanticipated tension, hurt feelings and delicate situations that you need to navigate through to maintain and nurture your friendships. Knowing what to do when faced with friendship issues can be difficult and even overwhelming. And they can add stress to an already busy like of family and work obligations.

But there is a simple way to deal with the friendship obstacles that you encounter. Step back and look at the situation from the view of a kindergartener.

If you have ever had children in kindergarten you know that a lot of the lessons they learned about how to behave and interact with others during that time are the same ones that they'll need for the rest of their lives. In Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Ever Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, which was originally published in 1988, Fulghum brilliantly simplified life’s lessons into a short list of kindergarten rules. In his book, Fulghum outlines the lessons children usually learn in kindergarten classrooms and explains how these lessons could help guide everyone, young and old, as they make their way through life.

Fulghum’s list, which was passed around the country many times and has taken on a life of its own, includes simple kindergarten rules such as:
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? Share everything.
? Play fair.
? Don’t hit people.
? Put things back where you found them.
? Clean up your mess.
? Don’t take things that aren’t yours.
? Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.
? When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
? Be aware of wonder and live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and dance and play and work every day some.

These are the lessons you learned long ago and the ones that you teach your children. But they are also ones that can help you get back to the basics of life and relationships. No matter how complicated and difficult the situation, the core of how we behave towards others is simple: being fair to others, not being hurtful (even when others are hurtful to you), having the courage to say you’re sorry when you’ve done something wrong, cleaning up a messy situation that you might have contributed to (whether intentionally or unintentionally), knowing when to ask for help and knowing when others need your help, being kind to others and treating them as you would want to be treated yourself.

Even though these lessons may seem simplistic and cliché, they encompass the universal truth of human behavior and can help everyone navigate through even the most complex relationships in life.