Friends

[Trainerall]

How much effort do your friends make with your children? AIBU to be upset that 2 friends popped over quickly to drop something off and didn’t even acknowledge my child sitting there. They make no effort whatsoever with them and tbh probably couldn’t pick them out of a line up that’s how little they see them. These are friends I’ve had for 20 years. I just think even a hello would be nice.

A lot, but it's reciprocal. I have a real interest in what they're doing, and enjoy their company.

Not loads, but if they came to my house and my children were literally right there they wouldn't ignore them. That's just rude whether it's a child or an adult being ignored.

How quickly was quickly? How old are DC and did they acknowledge friend?

Depends on her friend, on our relationship, and on how long we’ve known each other and everything else.

Never mind who they were though, I’d find it ignorant to ignore a person when you’ve just walked into their home. I always teach my kids to say hello to everyone when they go into somebody’s house and I’d find it quite rude for a friend to ignore my child when it’s their home.

I’d never ignore a child sitting in front of me, but generally speaking, I probably don’t show much interest in my friend’s kids no.

It’s definitely a me thing, the kids are lovely, but I’m just not interested. I have my own kid and I think she’s great, but I tend to see my friends separately and only do kids stuff with them occasionally. It’s different with my sister’s children, I’m very invested in them, but that’s it for me.

Some people are actually quite awkward around children so they don't engage. Not an excuse, a reason.

Have they got children themselves?

My friends always talk to our children but then we always talk to theirs. We all socialise a lot together with our children so they see them regularly, so that might be why. But I have always made a fuss of children as my parent's friends did that with me and it made a huge impact on me. My dad also told me all of the time that adults have a responsibility to encourage children and show an interest them. And never belittle them. He was in a children's home for a while and was treated terribly by adults so it was always his mission to make children feel good about themselves. That rubbed off on me, I guess. I also couldn't be friends with people who had no interest in my children and ignored them. I've waffled a bit there but you get the gist 😂