My older kids are 8 and 6, and are just starting to encounter the fall outs that kids can have...little comments, changing dynamics etc etc.
I find this sort of thing really hard to deal with as am stupidly sensitive and perhaps paranoid in my own friendships at times. I don't want to pass this to the kids!
So I'm trying to figure out how to respond if they tell me about this sort of thing, my instinct is to worry about it, question them, ask them how they feel about it etc but I know that that would blow it up into a big deal for them. I don't want their happiness to be dependent on others, if that makes sense?
So far I have stuck to a variant on the following:
A) that doesn't sound very nice/kind
B) that's a shame
C) does that happen often
D) oh dear
E) perhaps so and so is having a bad day/hard time at the moment
F) when someone is unpleasant to you/makes you feel uncomfortable it's ok to walk away, play with someone else, say 'thats not very nice'
Am I approaching this right? I want them to feel supported and that I 'have their back' obviously, but leaping on the defensive could make them feel like victims, which I don't want.
I could well be overthinking this, I readily acknowledge 😂