My DS2 is in Year 8, and 13 years old. He describes himself as 'socially awkward', a term he picked up from teen-tv, but he's basically just an introvert like the rest of us in the family, and finds being sociable an effort. After a year and a half at his secondary school he had just about bonded with a small friendship group, but he's had no interest in keeping in touch with them since the lockdown. He's exchanged a few Whatsapp messages, but nothing more. He rejects any encouragement from me to make video calls to other kids, hook up with them via online gaming, or arrange a socially-distanced bike ride. He also gets quite angry when I "go on about it" so I try not to.
Until recently he was enjoying DS1's company, but since the lockdown eased, his big brother is going out more regularly to meet with friends. Me and DH are both working from home, so he's not alone, but I do worry that there's a long lonely road ahead before he goes back to school in (hopefully) September. Normally he'd be playing a team sport regularly, but that has all stopped for now.
He's doing his school work ok, playing solo games on his phone, watching tv, doing a bit of cooking, going for walks with us, a daily run with his bro, practising his piano (he gets video lessons) but its hard to motivate him to do much else.
I'm planning a couple of picnics with families who have boys of similar age, but they're not kids he'd normally choose to hang out with and the social distancing won't help them to bond.
I know there are no easy answers to this, but I'm guessing there are many other kids in the same position. Anyone out there?
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Key Stage 3 introverts - anyone else worried about lack of social interaction due to lockdown?
17 replies
graghion · 04/06/2020 08:09
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