Raised with my Dad last weekend - I told him I was annoyed when on holiday once that my mum forced me to mix with one specific girl
- I was a year older - I was 13 and she was 12. To cut a long story short, I was quite happy reading a book while we were all sitting round a pool, she tried to manipulate me into making 'friends' with another girl round the the pool and when she realised I wasn't taking the bait she suddenly said to me in a very harsh/sharp voice:
"Look, me and your father want you to make friends, it's no wonder you haven't got any friends, you're totally selfish. You always want to spend time on your own." At the time I felt very affected by this - it upset my and knocked my confidence to smithereens. When I mentioned this to my Dad years later he said she was just trying to 'protect.' I was surprised he said this as I would've thought coercing a child to befriend another child they're not interested in I would hardly be ' protecting' them - if anything surely it's exposing them to something they don't want?