I'm beginning to get worried about DD. She's 9 and has been travelling to school on the school bus for the past year, and been quite happy. However, a girl who started at the school this year has been making her very unhappy on the bus journeys. She's constantly saying my DD is picking on HER (when she's not) and has got a group of older children to also pick on her too. At school itself she's ok, as she has lots of friends, but on the bus most of the kids are younger (and a friend of the bully) or much older (obviously defending this girl as they think she is being bullied). Hope this is making sense. The girl doing the bullying lives in the same street, so I spoke to her parents, who said it was 50/50 DD and her daughter. We think we may have sorted it out, having spoken to both girls. However, what's beginning to worry me now is that this other girl has lots of friends because she plays out in the street with other kids. My DD tends not to, as we live a little further away from the street, around the corner, and also I'm not keen on the way the other kids behave. Do you think I should encourage my daughter to mix with kids that I really don't think are very nice, just so that she can be one of the "in crowd"? I know some of the kids have called her "sad" and tell her to "get a life" just because she doesn't do the things they do. Sorry, this sounds rambling, but I'm confused about it and would really appreciate some help. have changed my name for this post. thanks all. x