LDS Question

Nope not true. All of my friends were LDS when I was a kid. I am a southern baptist. Some of my best and closest friends were/are LDS.

Not true. However, there tends to be, as with any religion, a bit of anxiety on the part of the parents, thinking that maybe a non-LDS child may negatively influence theirs, or teach them something against their standards. So there are parents who may restrict who their child plays with based on religion. There is also however the challenge pursued (I think more strongly than other faiths), that their relationship may lead the other child to the LDS faith based on living by example and fellowship.

It certainly was not true for our family! There's no church rule that says any such thing. We are encouraged to be friends with our neighbors and have our children be friends with neighbors and school mates. That's not to say that a particular family may have that rule, but I personally wouldn't have such a rule. I feel that's against everything we stand for.
Thanks,
E.

I am LDS. This is absolutely not true. If anything, children are encouraged to be friends with everyone, and to even invite them to family night and activities.

The only thing it comes into concern, is dating and marriage, and to choose friends that have good values in which we can support each other, whether they are LDS or not. We prefer to marry within the religion (and to be very choosy with those even within the religion!) because of our belief system and because it makes marriage easier to share the belief system, (which is common in many religions)

I am LDS born and raised and am raising children in the church now. And I can tell you that it is not true. I had friends in and out of the church my whole life and about half of my kids friends are not LDS. I like them all about the same and let them play with all of them as much as they like. It is true that our standards are different than those of people outside the church. We encourage our children not to date until they are 16, no R rated movies (for any of us), no alcohol, drugs, swearing, inappropriate TV/music/video games are out. Stuff like that. I found that when I was a kid my interests did not really mesh with the non LDS kids I knew and they weren't interested in hanging out with me if I was going to be a "goody goody". I wasn't offended. Living this way has saved me a lot of trouble and I know it will do the same with my kids. That's why I do it.

I'm sure your children will always be welcome to play with LDS kids. We are taught to be inclusive and not exclusive, but we hold strong to our values.

While I have never heard of a rule about it, I think it really depends on the child and their family. Growing up in East Mesa I have LDS friends that I'm still friends with today. However in the neighborhood where I live there is a large LDS family (several generations) that lives in the 3 houses across the street from us and will hardly give us the time of day. The one family in particular even has little girls the same age as mine and I've tried to arrange play dates several times but to no avail. This mom even knows my younger sister (they went to high school together). So I think it will just depend. I think that junior high will be the real telling point. My mom is junior high teacher in East Mesa as well and she's seen friendships fall apart after the kids get to junior high and start going to seminary. In my personal experience the LDS religion is a very tight knit community and they are not always the most welcoming to outsiders.

Rumor, plain and simple. But thanks for just putting it out there and asking instead of assuming or playing into rumors. It's nice when people can be grown up about it! However, people make their own rules for their families...nobody is perfect, whatever religion or not. Just have your son surround himself with good people and he'll continue to be a great kid!

I do not know much about the Mormon religion, but I did grow up in a town with a lot of LDS people. I had lots of friends that were LDS all through High School. I have never heard this rumor.

I grew up in a very Mormon family (but I'm no longer LDS since I don't believe it's true) and I was never told not to have nonmormon friends, but I was encouraged to only date Mormon boys with my values. Mormons tend to stick with their own unfortunately (the good side being that they create such a sense of community within the church), but there are certainly no rules not allowing them to be friends with nonmembers. My husband also grew up LDS and almost every single one of his best friends in high school were NOT LDS. Hanging out with kids with similar values is encouraged, but I'm sure you'd encourage your child to hang out with friends with good morals too. But hopefully Mormons realize that they don't have a monopoly on good morals!