Mates...Can people hold a real friendship with the opposite gender?

You know I was thinking about this today as a comment was made that a female friend of my sons was just hanging around because she fancied him...Is society so badly warped that they think this sort of thing...Is it possible to have a best mate who is not a girl if your a girl and not a boy if you are a boy...Are they really just a mate?

My eldest has a couple of good friends who he can turn to in times of need...One of them is a girl and constantly people are always saying to both of them that they are more than friends...No way a person can be friends with someone of the opposite gender without there being an alterior motive...I have even heard this said in young kids too...

In grade 9 I met a guy who was just a great friend to me and he fancied my friend so he spent a fair bit of time on the phone to me talking about her...Those are the sort of things you do for your friends when you are 14 LOL...He went out with her and they broke up but the phone calls between us kept going...We had so much in common and he was soo fun to be around...We were great Mates...We too were always told that there is no way we could just be friends...Our friendship went on through school and all the way until now...We have been just mates for all those years and his girlfriend now still doesn't understand what two people of the opposite gender would keep a relationship for that long for...We are so close he actually sat at the family table at my wedding and made a speach...

My 12 year old also hangs around boys and she finds she gets on with them better and people think that she is a little tarty for doing this...Is that a fair assumption to make???

This is my advice to you when you have kids of any age...Do not discourage opposite gender friendships...Don't panic if your son brings home a girl and says mum/dad this is my mate such and such...Or if you are waiting for school to get out and you see you daughter over the back of the playground wrestling with the boys and she is the only girl...We are all different and we will rotate to people who have sismilar interests to us...In this process there should not have to be a barrier that says we can not have a friendship with someone because they are not our gender...

At school I played football, hockey and basketball and there was a  very small amount of girls on these teams...It was natural that I would get to know more boys that girls at school...In the adult world we rotate to people who are similar in thought and interests so do we really have to look if they wear  a dress or not...

The friendship my son has with his female mate is a very strong one and I think it will last the test of time...Just as mine with my mate has...I am soo glad my mum thought it was okay for me to have a male friend as a teen who was just that...A friend...

Just something I wanted to share...

Have a great day
Cheers
Angie