A child’s friendship deserves respect even when the names and interests change quickly.

Adults tend to grade friendships by how long they last, and by that measure a child’s attachments look like weather. They are not less real for being brief. The feeling is genuine while it lasts, and the practice of caring about someone, falling out, and finding a new person is the actual work of those years.

Learn the names even if they change next month. Ask about the friend by name rather than in general, and take a falling out seriously on the day it happens. Your interest teaches a child that their attachments are worth taking seriously, which outlasts any particular one.