Unkind best friend

[Frenemies]

Has anyone’s DC ever had a best friend who is also mean to them? They’ve been inseparable for years, but increasingly the friend can be really unkind to my DS. Mocking him and even hitting. My DS gets very upset about it, but objects when I suggest they spend less time together. They are both 9. Surely friendships at this age shouldn’t be this much hard work. Not sure what else I can do other than encourage his other friendships (which so far isn’t working).

Very normal and he‘ll need coaching about what makes a good friend, why being mean occasionally still isn’t ok, what a bully is, why telling the teacher on a friend is ok if the friend is mean etc…

Even role playing what to say to this “friend” in response to mean comments can be a helpful thing to do at home.

Thank you yes I’ve been talking to him a lot recently about good friendships in books or films that he likes, how they build each other up etc. I think he is finally starting to realise that this isn’t what a friendship should look like, but he’s also struggling with the practicalities of how to distance himself from this friend and make new ones.

I’m going to go over this again with him. Role playing is a great idea, he tends to break down in tears when the friend does something mean and that just adds fuel to the fire