Any ideas on getting your child to be more social & more independent?

[Guest guest]

My son is an only child and our relatives live out of state. Since middle school

he has made no effort to make friends so has become somewhat isolated. Getting

him out of the house is a challenge. Once out and doing stuff he likes it.

Usually once he's done with homework (he gets a lot of it) then he just likes to

hang around the house. He's fine with the fact that he really has no friends. I

keep explaining to him that he needs to know at least how to be friendly and

social once he gets starts working.

The other thing that I noticed is that he seems to be a bit more insecure lately

therefore less independent. He's been asking me things like whether he should

wear short or long sleeve pj's to bed or what he should have for lunch. I've

been trying for a while now to get him to be more independent - asking him to

help with more stuff around the house, teaching him some basic cooking and in

general trying to get him to make his own decisions. I try to frame my answers

so that I don't directly answer such as " It's going to be cold tonight so you

decide which pj's you want. " My DH asks these type of questions as well. Some

days I feel like screaming in frustration because I seem to be the only one who

can make a decision in this house.