We've just spent an hour calming our sobbing 5 year old daughter down. This is not her normal behaviour and it transpired that she was deeply upset because she says she has no friends at school.
She is very bossy, but full of imagination and likes having fun, but it seems that all the little girls in her class who have tried to play with her are bossed about in our daughters games, then she will not join in one of their games, or if she does she tries to change it to something that she wants instead.
The teachers have commented that she's a delight at school, very grown up for her age, but very direct when talking to the other children. I think we wouldn't mind her being bossy if she had some little chums to play with, but the bossiness is stopping the friendships from forming.
We actually think she's quite shy in certain situations, especially if she tries to join in with other childrens' games when she doesn't know them very well, but if they join in with her she'll boss them about and then want them to play her games going forward. The children seem to tolerate the bossiness for a while and then soon move on to less demanding children.
We're not sure what's best in this situation, but don't want the heartbreaking situation we endured tonight with our daughter sobbing her heart out saying that she has no friends.
Has anybody any suggestions?