Playground politics

[GullyGull]

Albu to think this is bonkers!

Okay so waiting to go into class at school. All in a line queuing up. Child A and Parent A stood talking to Child B and Parent B ( kids are year 1). All happy and fine. Child C and Parent C are also in the queue. Parent C notices kids A and B talking and cuts in. Tells Child A to come over to Child C and stand with her, so to basically drop Child B. Parents A and B carry on talking. Parent B puts hand on Child B's back and comforts them without saying anything, so they have an extra bit of support. Parent C then makes Child A hold hands with Child C to go into class. Not in a natural way but basically forced.

So in a nutshell a very deliberate show of excluding one Child to make another feel important. Parent C has form for this and always seems to be attention seeking in the playground and seems determined to exclude Child B at any opportunity (think turning back on Child B that sort of thing).

At no point has Parent B and Child B ever excluded Parent C and Child C, quite the opposite. Tried to engage them in talking/playing but always been given the cold shoulder.

Have you ever seen this happening and how do you cope with it without making it awkward for the child?

You can guess I'm parent B in this situation, just wanted to make it easier to read!

It amazes me that a Parent, a grown adult, would point score off a Child.

Yes we had this in our school too with a group of girls in year 1/2.

It is basically the parent trying to manipulate and control the friendships instead of letting them naturally develop/progress.

The parent is probably worried that their dc hasn’t formed a friendship yet, or think that child A is their child friend and therefore should only interact with them, or their dc is telling them that your dc is leaving her out. The parents then turn into 6 year olds themselves instead of being kind to everyone and leaving them to it.

It’s completely batshit behaviour. Some people are very overt and direct like this parent and physically move their child into the foreground.

Some parents are more subtlety manipulative and do it in the background, trying to get friends with parent A etc and arranging play dates without the other one too.

Some go and speak to the teacher and say their dc is being bullied! And some like someone in our year, ask the teacher to keep the dcs apart and not let them play! Crazy when they’re only 5!