AIBU to try keeping DD away from her 'best friend'

[JennyM9275]

DD (age 6) has managed to become firmly attached to another child who a lot of the time is just not very nice to her. The child is bossy (always telling DD the 'right' way to do things) and says horrible things to DD like no one else likes her or criticising her appearance. I nearly daily tell DD not to play with the child but DD says they are 'best friends'. Am I being over protective and unreasonable to want to keep this child away from mine?

Dd had a friend like this at a similar age. It took until she was 9, and old enough to work things out for herself, for her to decide not to have anything further to do with her, though she had been playing with her less often since she was 8.

I think if I'd put my foot down about her it would have just made the friendship more attractive.

I don't think you can keep them away from each other but you can introduce new friends who you can invite for tea to broaden her friendships

Thanks I'll try not to worry about it so much and focus on building up her other friendships too

I hear you, DD is too soft for her own good and has had a best friend since reception who is quite an over powering presence. I've encouraged other friendships as much as possible. I figure she'll figure it out soon but the BFF doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Similar story to a PP - my DD at 9 has finally distanced herself, mainly because she can now see from her other friendships what real friendship looks like.

It's also good to point out any good examples of friendship / loyalty that you come across in films / books (though don't make it too obvious!).

Girls are tricky

We had this with dd1- we managed it with " secret super spy missions" , she had to play with other children ( could be with best friend as well) a few sessions a week she got a reward computer time or similar, it was a way of trying to encourage her to be brave and expand her friend ship group as she and friend had segregated themselves.

Worked really well....bf became less and less significant, now still a friend but certainly not bf.

dD had a friend like this. At school, they would see each other but we stopped arranging for this girl to come to our house and DD declined invitations to her house. DD had other friends over many times instead.