to wonder what it feels like to have a popular child...

[Rory786]

Just that really... I wonder if some parents feel embarrassed that their child is popular and everyone is fighting over them....or proud that their child is so loved?

Thank you Platypus, she just prefers being at home in her own comfort zone where her two younger sisters adore her. She is in yr 1 and 6yrs old.

She goes to Beavers, but trying to encourage her to go to swimming classes. I hope she will settle down soon.

All my children are "popular" in the sense that they are well liked and get along with everyone. It makes me happy of course that they have no shortage of friends. All of my children are completely different from one another so I'm not sure what they share that makes them all "popular". But they are, and I'm glad the friendship side of their childhood years has so far been smooth.

I think popular falls into two categories at school.
The child who is genuinely lovely. Everyone wants to be their friend because they are nice to all. They are great at organising people into playing nicely, but without being bossy. They tend to make friends easily, so when they go out they'll always find others to play with.

The child who wants to be in charge no matter what. Some of these children turn people away, but others people seem to just do as they are told. There can be a very fine line between being their behaviour being okay and it becoming bullying, as if another won't conform they'll encourage others to behave badly towards them.

Some children will end up popular wherever they go. Some it can go either way. They find a group that responds to them and they're popular, they find a group that doesn't and they can find themselves excluded.

I doubt many children are universally and consistently 'popular'. Parents perceive and interpret their children's school lives but rarely witness them.

When the craze is doing cartwheels, the kids that do gymnastics are popular. When the craze is something else, other kids are popular.

I couldn't describe any of the children in dd's Y2 class as 'popular' or 'not popular' and most seem to play randomly with others.

My little girl is 3 and has been bullied by 2 older ones at pre-school - heartbreaking

She's affectionate and very sweet just struggling sociably and it's really hard - so no idea what that is like!!

to you Bellabutterfly, definitely speak to her nursery teacher. I think its a mixture of us helping them, making sure they get the support from nursery'school and just hoping for the best.

@Rory786
You're right it's just not very nice
She cries and doesn't want to go and said near her birthday "Mummy I don't want a party nobody likes me" - breaks me.

Awww for a 3 year old to say that is very sad. Have you spoken to her key workers?

@Rory786

I've spoken lots to them and they are fairly supportive but there's a limit to what they can do I guess. The other 2 girls were made to say sorry but dd said they kept on giggling at her and when she wanted to join in etc and asked what was funny they didn't let her.

Fortunately they aren't in the same group and I understand 1 is leaving at Xmas as her family are moving away so hopefully with 1 gone things will improve

It can change. My dd was very popular from playgroup to year 5. Then the girls and boys started playing separately and her best friend (a boy) abandoned her. It’s been hard for her since, but she has a little group of geeky friends to hang out with now.