This weekend, Mada is looking after her nephews Vera and Ibai, aged nine and six, respectively. Her sister-in-law, the children's mother, is preparing for competitive exams, so she's using Saturday morning to study at the Ignasi Iglesias-Can Fabra library in Sant Andreu, while Mada takes the two children and her seven-year-old daughter, Ona, for a walk around the neighborhood. At midday, the children and their parents will all gather at Mada's house for lunch. Although they live in different neighborhoods and each cousin has a different circle of friends, both families try to see each other often. "We alternate Saturday lunches between our house and theirs," explains Mada, who emphasizes how the three children enjoy the evening the most. They also occasionally babysit for the children. "That way, the parents can enjoy some free time when we need it or when we feel like getting away without the kids," she notes. These are moments that Mada considers ideal for enriching their relationship and doing different things, "but also for learning about other routines and ways of doing things, and for them to understand that every family can have different customs and rules." In the summer, Mada's family spends the season with their caravan at the campsite, and sometimes Ona receives visits from her cousins. "All of us being there, sleeping together and playing and running around the campsite in semi-freedom is quite an adventure!" she emphasizes. Mada and her brother—Vera and Ibai's father—are from Cantabria, so during the summer they also take the opportunity to visit family. "Our other brother and our nephews David and Regina live there, and although we don't see each other as much as they'd like, when all five cousins ​​get together it's fantastic," she explains.

My children have all kinds of friends. The ones who are always around. The padel friend. The otaku friend who's always online. School friends. Leisure friends. The children of my friends who are now their friends. The friend who's always making plans. The friend who never calls. The best friend. The only friend. Or the friend we can't stand.

In each class, put children born in the same year, even the same semester: first-year students in group A, second-year students in group B. Educating children of the same generation together makes perfect pedagogical sense, but it's also true that it doesn't inherently foster friendships between different age groups. This isn't the case at the rural school of Sant Climenç, located in the main village of the small municipality of Pinell de Solsonès, in the western part of the region, with about 200 inhabitants. There are nine students—yes, only nine—of varying ages (including just one girl), and they all share a good part of their time and space. Because there are siblings, the number of families is even smaller: only seven. They are both long-time residents of the tiny village and also neighbors from Solsona who have moved there in search of a better quality of life and to escape the high cost of housing in the capital. One of the great friendships separated by several years is that of Pau Salvat (four years, I5) with Miquel Nieto (ten, 5th).

Friendships play a fundamental role in the growth of children and adolescents. They learn to relate to others, build their identity, and feel part of a group. But not all relationships are always positive. Some can limit them or cause discomfort. As child and adolescent psychologist Margot Fusté points out, in these cases it's important to know how to identify what's happening and, above all, how to support them.

Actor David Schwimmer, one of the protagonists of Friends, was unable to listen to the theme song for the series that made him famous for years because it made him feel so miserable. "I'll be very honest. For a long time, the song—the theme song—made me shiver," he said during an appearance on the podcast Making en Scene, by Matt Lucas and David Walliams.

How many real friends do you have? Have you ever felt the fear of not having friends? Do you have friends of the opposite sex? Do you have a guilty conscience for not caring about your friends? How much truth, how much lies, and how much secrecy can a friendship endure? These are recurring, age-old questions. Questions as important as they are uncomfortable. That's why we avoid them. Friendship is a mystery. It is, as Marina Garcés says in the essay: The passion of strangers (Galaxia Gutenberg), the only form of stable social interaction that isn't institutionalized or regulated: it's free, without rules, without paperwork, between equals. It depends only on the will of those who sustain it, on the rituals and habits that are created. It is born and dies by spontaneous generation. No two friendships are alike. That's why it's sometimes difficult to know who is and isn't your friend. Friendship has a wonderful element of unease, of desire, of promise.

As social beings, friends have a great importance in our lives from an early age. Interaction with peers provides children and adolescents with a space in which they can form voluntary, equitable and mutual relationships, which are crucial for socialization. In this environment, says child and adolescent psychologist Julia Maria Bonet, "deep emotional ties are created and several important psychological processes are developed, such as prosocial behavior, emotional control, aggression management, self-esteem building and conflict resolution, among others." According to Bonet, having friends not only favors the development of social skills, "but also predicts adequate psychological well-being in the future and a better ability to deal with conflicts."