Gal pals: There is a broad squad waiting for you

The budding of the development of broad squads starts in early childhood. We see young girls playing together at the playground: they are swinging, running, and, most importantly, interacting.

Teenage girls create their own social networks that include long phone calls and hanging out. As women mature, we create our own female social groups through school, work, and even by meeting other parents through their children’s activities. Women often share close relationships with other females in their own families. The ladies in my family absolutely freak out to the “We are Family” song by Sister Sledge. Sound familiar?

The female group can be just two best friends or consist of a whole team of gals. The structure of the broad squads is flexible and easily adaptable to new members, new conversations and new thoughts. The broad squad is also indestructibly strong as it supports its members and often others as well. Broad squads are everywhere. There are women-only fitness facilities in many communities, as well as ladies’ book clubs, religious organizations and sports teams.

There is a broad squad waiting for you. You can belong to a number of broad squads, and a member can even overlap with multiple communities of women. My lifelong best friend has her own broad squad of her close friends, which I am included in, and I have other groups as well. The term “broad squad” doesn’t have to be used to describe your women’s group. I have heard “ladies night out” when my colleagues at work have gone out after business hours. I have heard a friend call the gathering of her female relatives a “hen party.”

Most often what I hear is the groups calling themselves “friends,” and that is one of the best associations to belong to.

Dianne McDonald, Marshfield