DS (year 5 so 9/10) has always found how to act socially a bit hard. He is a completely different kid when alone/with adults to when he’s with other children he wants to be friends with. He can be loud and silly. He says strange things for attention. I can see it’s all a pretence and he’s hiding his low self esteem and trying to fit in and is just going about it the wrong way. But obviously other kids can’t see this they just think he’s an idiot I think. He’s so lovely and sweet on his own though - I even got a message recently to this effect out of the blue from another adult who spent some time with him.
Anyway it’s come to our attention that the kid he thought was a good friend is actually trying to avoid him now, finds him too OTT, doesn’t like his behaviours.
What, if anything, can we/should we do? Do we just have to let him figure it out for himself and hope he gets there eventually? Or do we try talking to him? I’m not sure
if he’s noticed about the friend, although it’s obvious he’s being excluded now to me. He’s hard to talk to - gets annoyed at me when I try to broach what might be wrong with him, hides his face. Can’t stand being caught out and told off so he’s not particularly receptive!
Being a parent is hard, if anyone has useful advice I would be grateful. I love him so much and don’t want to see him hurt having been the victim to exclusion and bullying myself I know how awful it feels. I just want to help him find his way.