Friendship finds a way: my toddler made a new friend through gap in our hedge

Both my children are missing other children.

Whether it's school friends or cousins, they have really been missing interacting and playing with other children. Even as an adult I've been missing my friends, I think we all have, but for young children quarantine is just that little bit harder. Last week though something incredibly sweet happened that made lockdown just that little bit easier. It made me realise that even through all of the social distancing and self isolating, friendship still finds a way. We moved into our house last year and we're still getting to know everyone in the neighbourhood. We know just about all our neighbours who live either side of us but not the ones behind us. That was until a couple of days ago. There's a small gap in our hedge that was caused by the previous owner's dog, but it's small and there's a mesh fence on the other side so it was never of much concern to us. Over the weekend my two-year-old heard another little girl crying from the other side of the hedge and being nosy decided to climb into the small gap to investigate. The other little girl stopped crying (I found out from her mum later she was hangry) and came over to the gap to chat with my daughter. It turned out they are exactly the same age and are both big fans of dolls so an instant friendship was made. My daughter spent most of the day popping back to the gap to chat with her new friend and every so often the other little girl will shout through the hedge when she can hear my children out playing. Ever since my daughter discovered her new friend she has arranged all of her toys at the back of the garden so she can play with them while also chatting with the little girl in the house behind us. I think their new friendship is just the sweetest thing and reminds me of something out of an Enid Blyton novel. Play dates have already been arranged for when lockdown finally ends but until then they'll continue to chat and have tea parties through the gap in the hedge.