Playdate nightmare

[PeanutButterOnly]

Hello, anyone else had to send another child home from a playdate due to own child having a temper tantrum. Mine is 6.7 and thought we were past this. It took one look from his older brother to trigger the tantrum. He has long standing battles/rivalry with brother who is nearly 12. I tried to distract to no avail in stopping the tantrum I feel bad for the other kid mostly and wonder what else I could have done.

[MattDillonsPants]

How long was the tantrum? It's quite unusual for a child to have a huge tantrum at this age when a friend is present. I would try to ensure the older sibling wasn't around in future at playdates.

[NerrSnerr]

I'm also wondering how long the tantrum lasted? Was there no way you could have calmed him down?

[PeanutButterOnly]

Thanks both. In the end the tantrum went on for about 30 mins. He kept saying that his brother had embarrassed him in front of his friend. I think now I could've tried harder to stop the tantrum and get the younger boys doing something else. Partly it was me being tired and fed up after working all week, including that morning, and then rushing back for the early end of term pickup. Luckily the other mum is someone I know well and she said all was fine.

[MattDillonsPants]

30 minutes is a long time...maybe you need to look closely at his brother's behaviour towards him. Older siblings can really erode confidence if allowed to pick on younger ones.