Does a 1 year old NEED to socialise?

[Vassia]

I work full time and my DH looks after our (almost) 1 year old DS as he works shifts. When he is working dayshift, our DS goes to a childminder who has a 6 month old and a 2 year old. But this only amounts to about 7 days a month. Now, I might be completely insane, but my biggest worry is that he has no "friends" or finds it hard to socialise with other kids.

I took him to tumble tots at the weekend to help him interact with others, but he was the youngest there, all the other kids are running around. He seemed to enjoy their company but obviously with him being so much younger, they weren't really interested and he was getting bumped about a bit. (That doesn't bother me, he's rather sturdy)

My issue is this - does he really notice? Is he old enough to be really aware of other kids? I don't really know what my point is, I'm just generally concerned that I'm not doing enough to help him interact with other babies. Is it really important at this age? Am I doing it all wrong?! Is this the guilt of a working parent talking?!

True, I was a bit unclear with Bonsoir's statement. Hopefully we'll be enlightened soon...

are there any softplay centres in your area? usually they're about £3 to get in and have a cafe as well, its not like taking them to a 'class' or 'group' but they do get to run about with kids their own age, the under-5s are usually prevalent mon-fri 9-3 and the weekend can be a bit more busy with slightly older kids but places usually have some kind of 'under 4s' area anyway. Your DH might feel more comfortable taking him to somewhere like that as its not a structured group, although you might well get chatting to other parents as your little one follows other kiddies onto a bouncy castle!! :) also alot of these places are open on weekends. Theres a few good websites where you can search for something like this locally to you. Of course at this age they are doing 'parallel play' but they are also soaking things up like sponges, mine always likes to see kids his age and especially likes to try and copy older ones, he's 2 and a half and often will latch onto or 'befriend' one or two other kids at a softplay centre, even at 1 or so he would chase another child round, so whilst they don't exactly make friends yet they do have their own level of socialising and I think that its good for them to see other children. mines an only child though, so maybe its just my guilt talking!!!! :) best wishes