to distance myself & my daughter

[wimblehorse]

Dd1 (4) attended the school nursery of the RC school that is opposite our home. She will not be joining reception class there as we are not religious (our catchment school does not have a nursery class & as I had just had dd2 when she was due to get her 15 hours entitlement it made sense to go with closest provider).

She really enjoyed her nursery year & made some good friends there (so did I) & has been meeting up with them over the holidays. Most of the children from her nursery class are going onto reception there & start next week. Dd' s reception class do not start for another 6 weeks. She doesn't know any of the children there yet. She has asked why she isn't going to school with her friends & I have said it is because we aren't religious, she will make new friends etc, but clearly at 4 that is hard to grasp.

Getting to the point now...there are a few meet ups planned over the next couple of weeks, 1 just before they start school, 1 towards the end of their first week (of half days). I am worried that dd may get upset if they are all talking about school/ wearing uniform as it will single her out as different. On the other hand she is very sociable, loves playing with her friends & we will still be living close to a lot of them so possible to continue to see some of them out of school.

So WIBU to distance us from them & avoid meet ups for a while, at least until dd has had chance to settle into her new school, or should I carry on seeing them & see if either the friendships fizzle out or continue as out of school friends?

no being her up with the mantra that friends are everywhere and come from any school, holiday meet up or day out.

make it positive. of course go to any meet ups you can of the new school but if dd is sociable as you say she will settle anywhere.

that's what we did with ours and haven't seen youngest dds all holiday as out and about with mates from all different schools.

lovely.

Thanks body, I think that is what I'd prefer to do, so she doesn't start off with a mind set of different schools, different gangs. Hate the idea of friendships being segregated along religious lines.
And you're right about days out too, all holiday she's made `friends' with children whose names she hasn't even bothered to ask...

I would say continue with the meet ups because although it is nice to make new friends, it is good to keep old ones too.

Agree to keep with the meet ups.

It could be possible that your children will all still meet up through extra-curricular activities, eg swimming, gymnastics, music classes?

Yes, I hope they'll be able to do some after school things together, though dd will be going to a cm 2-3 days when I go back to work after Xmas which restricts things a bit. They will all probably end up at the same secondary school so even if things do cool off a bit they could end up as bff's!

My daughter had two special friends she made at nursery. All three went to different schools. They are nine now and at the swimming pool together as I type.

They also do Brownies together.

I agree to continue with meet ups. My DC's best friend from nursery went to different schools starting Rec. didn't see much of eachother. Then Yr 1-3 same schools, different classes. They remained friends. No longer besties. But they do have a comfort level with eachother that they don't have with other friends. The other child's mum - became and continues to be my closest friend throughout the years.