Other parents at nursery are standoffish, AIBU to think it's me?

[Persey]

My DS has recently started at a small special needs nursery and I find the other parents standoffish. The SN parents groups online are the opposite and very welcoming because we're all in the same boat.

However at the nursery, nobody other than the staff acknowledges me or my DS when I smile and say good morning/afternoon. The other parents are just frosty.

I'm not actively looking for friends but I don't understand why they're so antisocial. A polite smile and "good morning" is just basic manners.

Is this the norm or is it me?

Please don't take it personally. I often come across as you describe, not because I don't like you it's just that I have ASD and am really not good with new people. My ds went to as SN nursery and I found that many of the other parents were also on the spectrum too.

At the moment, I think people are wary of others because they've had "keep away" drummed into them.

Even in normal times, many people (me) are half asleep in the mornings and lost in their own world where they are trying to think through what they have to do today and don't even register you've said good morning until a few minutes later.

I think you need to wait for a different more social occasion before you decide they are standoffish.

Maybe mornings are just fraught with the effort of getting child(ten) ready and out of the door.

Afternoons they are wondering what's going to come barrelling out of the door?

Don't write everyone off just yet. It's a challenging time without throwing additional needs into the mix. Give people a chance to see you about, lower your expectations of interaction - online is a lot easier as you don't have to see people and can just 'walk away' if you want to, which is harder in real life. But continue with the cheery 'morning/afternoon'.