Other children don't seem to like my 2.5 year old... help!

[Lolabear38]

Hi, I wonder if anyone can give me any advice please. My daughter is 2yrs 8months and loves playing with other children. Maybe I’m being paranoid but I feel like other children don’t like her. We have have three sets of friends with children and we all socialise together (we haven’t been on lockdown for a while where we live) and they all get on really well with each other but my daughter always seems to be the one left out. They often play games that involve running away from her or they just don’t include her in games at all. Sometimes they will all play really nicely together but often she is left out. They are all in the 2-4 age bracket.

My daughter is friendly and happy but she does get very excited and tends to scream and shout which I think puts them off a bit. She is also very excitable when playing a game so i don’t think that helps but I don’t want this behaviour to become an ingrained pattern and then her socialisation to become affected by it. One girl in the group in particular can be quite nasty and shout at her to go away.

Does anyone have any advice or been in a similar situation? Am I being paranoid and all kids are like this? Is she too young for me to be worrying about it or should I be doing something? For the record she doesn’t seem to get too upset by it, sometimes she will ask to go home but often she just carries on. it’s me who is the worrier. She doesn’t have any siblings, and unfortunately it doesn’t look like she will have any either. She was going to a little pre school (pre covid!) and although I never asked, her teacher never said anything about socialisation. She goes to a gymnastics class and a swimming class every week but doesn’t really mix with the other kids as she is too busy running around! I’d love to hear from anyone with any suggestions or experience of this, thanks!

[labyrinthloafer]

She is very young to properly play with other children, so try not to worry yet. Also your preschool should have said if they had noticed a particular concern. You can ask them whenever you return there. I would ask 'how is at getting on with the other children?' rather than tell them I was worried, see what they say.

The issue that I read in your post is the other children telling her to go away - do their parents correct this? If not, then you may want to find different playmates. I once chose to stop socialising with a group where one child pushed others over/away because the parent didn't try to intervene, I wouldn't have minded if the parent was trying!

[Lolabear38]

@labyrinthloafer

She is very young to properly play with other children, so try not to worry yet. Also your preschool should have said if they had noticed a particular concern. You can ask them whenever you return there. I would ask 'how is at getting on with the other children?' rather than tell them I was worried, see what they say.

The issue that I read in your post is the other children telling her to go away - do their parents correct this? If not, then you may want to find different playmates. I once chose to stop socialising with a group where one child pushed others over/away because the parent didn't try to intervene, I wouldn't have minded if the parent was trying!

Thanks for this I think I am a bit of a worrier anyway to be honest, so perhaps it's not as bad as I think it is. And you're right, she is still pretty young. Hopefully it'll turn out to be nothing. I'm going to try modelling more turn taking and sharing etc and also encourage less screeching!

The mum of the girl who tells her to go away does tell her to stop, and the other parents do encourage their kids to play nicely. It's just painful to watch when it seems like it's always your child the behaviour is happening to I guess And it makes me overthink why it's happening. Thank for the reply