My heart broke when I heard what my teen had to say. When one of my teens was around middle school age, they came to me and told me how left out they felt among their peers. As things do in junior high, the friend groups had shifted. It can be startling as a parent, when everything in the friend arena shifts for your tween and early teen, in junior high. Personally, I felt caught off guard by the middle school age transitions. Suddenly, your tween, that seemed to have friends before can be left alone as cliques form. How do you help your lonely teenager with no friends form connections with those around them and make friends when it doesn’t come easily? [Read more…]