DS friendship trouble because he's 'trash' at Fortnite. Advice please

[AJ68]

Hi, first time user driven here by worry about DS, 11 and in Yr7. First term was ok but he had little bit of bullying from kids from old school including best friend for all of KS1/2 who has just been mean. Died down but now he says wants to move as doesn't fit in, long talk tonight and he says people just say 'Hi' and go in opposite direction and they judge him because he's not good at Fortnite. It's not a play to get more time on it. My heart is breaking any ideas?

[AnneElliott]

Does he have any other hobbies where he can meet people? I do think it's good having mates outside of school. What about scouts or something like that?

[cloudtree]

Ds2s friends were refusing to play with him because he was a “trash newb no skin default”. We let him spend £10 of his Christmas money on v bucks to get a skin and now all fine. Could your problem be resolved like that?

Just realised I would have had no understanding of what I’ve just typed a year ago!

[Sugarhunnyicedtea]

DS went to secondary school with a group of friends from primary. He barely speaks to them now and has new friends. Does the school operate a scheme where kids who aren't part of a friendship group can go to an activity at lunchtime/break? This was invaluable for making new friends

[kathryn77]

No real advice but is there any clubs? My now yr 8 boy struggled and Fortnite and other Xbox has helped him socialise after school if not in school. Agree to buy him vbucks/skins/battle passes as this could help or encourage him on other games- a lot of dS mates are playing cOd now and for for Xmas , which is a similar concept . Yr 7 is hard as I think it’s such a massive change with new schools, hormones etc.

[AJ68]

Hi there, and thank you all for your thoughts,
He does athletics and plays guitar outside school and has a good group of friends at athletics and he's like a different kid. We are also trying to keep in touch with friends not at the school. Difficult to do more because of homework and he is at a childminders two days a week.
There are lots of groups at lunchtime so that's a good idea thanks, will chat about that.
And maybe get him some more skins/battlepass - but he still has to be good at the game.
His confidence is also taking a hit because not great at Rugby or table tennis either and they make fun of that. Thought it was just girls who were spiteful like that.

[Sugarhunnyicedtea]

It doesn't always help if they are good at sport either! DS's friends refused to play table tennis or badminton with him because he's been playing both since he was about 4 - he has to play against the teacher!
The fortnite craze will be over soon and he'll find a group of friends who deserve his friendship

[Oblomov19]

This sounds sad to me. Re the nastiness. Ds1 has new friends and spends little time with primary friends now. It helps that he's very good at fortnite, plus he plays football.

He will find his niche OP.

[goldengummybear]

Is he good at other games? For example my son might beat yours at Fortnite or Rocket League but would struggle winning at FIFA.

[Miane]

It’s not the game, it’s the boys.

My DS doesn’t play at all (we won’t allow fortnite) and hasn’t had any teasing.

[Cakecrumbsinmybra]

How mean and ridiculous! He needs to find new friends. Like pp We don’t have fortnite and DS1 (Y7) doesn’t have any bullying/friendship issues. He find kids who only obsess about fortnite generally pretty boring, though he does like computer/phone games. Has he joined any clubs at school? Is this more about the old best friend being mean as that’s pretty harsh if he hadn’t met new friends yet. Can you encourage him to invite some boys over?