Hi, i have a nearly 8 year old and a 3 year old. the 8 year old has a few friend outside of school and a couple of close friends in school. the friends outside of school are children of my close friends so they have known each other since birth. it has been bought to my attention recently that he is very very bossy whilst playing with them, and is sometimes not inclusive to the fourth and slightly younger friend and has even been a bit mean and teasing towards him. i have spoken to him and his logic is that he wants to play something and the younger child doesnt so he plays something else. i remember being exactly the same as a child, always wanting to clarify if "i was her best friend" etc and wanting everyone to play the things i wanted to play, resulting in my group of friends becoming smaller and smaller, which is why i am probably being a bit over sensitive about it all. i worry all the time that if it carries on and they distance themselves from him, not only will he not have outside of school friends but i may lose my friends too as this happened to my mum in the same way. i have always found it incredibly hard to make friends, and at 38 i fear its a skill that has passed me by. all the friends i am close with are linked to my school friend/s and friends of theirs. i worry that i have passed on this inability to make friends to my son. i have even struggled with small talk with school mums. in 4 years of school he has been invited to 3 or 4 birthday parties, i know i should not compare him to other children who seem to be at a b day party every weekend, as he is not the life and soul of the class/class clown etc, not everyone can be i know that. i just worry that my insecurities are being passed on to him. at a dinner last night one of the husbands was talking about child safety etc and made a "hilarious" joke that if my son was taken by anyone they would soon bring him back as he would be unbearably bossy to them and they would want to get rid of him. everyone laughed along but inside i was trying not to cry - is this really what everyone thinks of him but don't want to say?
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