Am I being too friendly and helpful at the reception school gates .?

You sound like a lovely person, and I'd be happy to chat, but I wouldn't appreciate someone else parenting my child if I was right there. Clearly, if I thought they needed help with something, I would help them.

Chatting and answering questions is fine.

If a child is by themselves it’s ok to ask if they’d like help and then help them with it.

But if their parent is with them or nearby, asking their child directly if they’d like help could be seen as rude by some sensitive types.

It could be seen as implying “hey your child needs help, but you didn’t even notice! I’m helping your child because I’m soooo much better at parenting than you!”

It may be that they didn’t notice (in which case they don’t want that pointed out, unless it’s an emergency of course). It could also be that they think their child can do it and want to encourage independence, or even that they’ve decided to model for their child that if you want help you must ask for it not just wait for a grownup to leap in.

So I’d adjust a little bit, be careful of overstepping. Friendliness is good and helping if asked to is good, but just be careful not to step in when their parent is around.

Keep doing what you are doing

You sound amazing- don’t let anyone dampen your fire!

If their parents are there why aren’t they helping with things like sleeves? Are you talking to the adults as much as their children? Nothing wrong with being friendly and it’s great you son is settling so well. But focus on chatting to the parents I think.

You sound absolutely delightful!

I think you sound lovely and honestly I think we need more people like you because there's so much anxiety at the moment among parents about meeting other parents. The vast majority of parents would welcome meeting someone as friendly and outgoing as you as it makes their social life easier.

I would just sound a note of caution that, as you point out, there's a lot more reserve in British culture and some people really struggle with social anxiety. So I'd tread a bit more carefully in terms of engaging with the children themselves (as opposed to the parents). I don't think you're doing anything wrong but some people might not welcome a stranger interacting with their children unless there's some knowledge there.

But I would keep on being who you are!

I think the problem with offering to help a child when the parent is present is that it could be seen as interfering and also as a judgement on the parent. They also might be working on independence with their child and want them to make their way on their own.

I would offer to help a small child that didn’t have a parent around but I would mainly direct them towards their classroom and teacher/TA.

Being talkative is totally different and just chatting to the other children is fine.

If the parent is there, I wouldn't help the child. Talking fine!

I wish you were my friend!! It’s tricky to say I am Irish and I find my lovely British counterparts way more reserved particularly down here in the south of England. I have trouble maintaining friendships here as they only seem to work if I keep chasing them, but that has just been my experience- yours might be completely different.I think you should ask to volunteer at the school to do reading or something and that way its official as people won’t be questioning you or join the parents club and help raise money for things for the school and then again, it’s a normal part of your role..

I wouldn't volunteer to help a child in front of their parent unless for some reason you are much closer. If you're high energy you might be seen as hard work but it might not.

I used to live in an area with lots of Nepalese families, and you sound just like them and absolutely delightful 😊 I miss them!