Your Circle

Your Circle is a practical guide to helping children understand relationships, build trust carefully and recognise the people who genuinely have their interests at heart.

Children are taught to be kind to everyone. But being kind to everyone is not the same as trusting everyone equally.

This book introduces a simple circle model that helps children understand different levels of trust. The people closest to them form an inner circle; friends and supportive adults occupy a wider circle; and people they do not yet know well remain further out until trust has been earned.

Children learn how to recognise what a real friendship looks like, notice warning signs, understand when someone is pushing too quickly for closeness, and ask an important question when another person is influencing them: who benefits?

The book also covers friendships that become unhealthy, relationships with adults, online relationships and what to do when someone repeatedly lets a child down. Just as importantly, children are encouraged to understand their own role in relationships and learn how to be a good friend themselves.

The aim is not to make children suspicious of people. It is to help them become more confident and thoughtful about who they trust, while recognising and valuing the good relationships around them.

Written for parents and carers of children roughly aged 7–13.

Practical systems, not parenting theories.

B-Useful Systems: teach children how to think, not what to think.