Preparing pre-school child re bullies etc

[Itscurtainsforyou]

This may seem that I'm over-thinking/worrying unnecessarily, but I'd value any advice.

My LO starts school in September, has been at nursery for years so is used to other children and from what I can see, has friends there (although will be going to a different school to friends we think).

We have friends with children a little bit older and on a number of occasions we've noticed them being goady (eg mocking him if upset, sharing with others but not with him (& making this obvious), ganging up against and generally being unpleasant. If we see/hear this going on, we intervene if it looks like it's escalating and he's getting upset (by challenging behaviours rather than telling them off, we try hard not to overstep the mark as they are not our children to tell off).

Now I know that this is part of life, but how can I help my LO deal with this kind of thing when we're not around? We do talk about any instances of potential bullying and how it's made him feel (mainly because we don't want him replicating it) and also good things for him to do/say if they do it again, although at the same time I don't want to dwell on it too much.

Any thoughts?

Don't assume that because your friends children are mean to him that others will be too.

It's not part of life really...true bullying is not that common in the early years and indeed some people on MN at least are loathe to call it bullying when the children are under 5.
You should definitely NOT discuss it with him at all....you will be putting him on the back foot...you need to focus on positive behaviour which by the sound of it is all in place as he is fine at nursery.

Deal with things IF they arise which they in all likelyhood won't.

Really don't set him up for expecting people to be horrible to him.

And find other children to play with, they sound awful.

Thanks. I'm feeling very protective as I was bullied and want to protect him as much as possible...

Re mixing with other people, I do try, but find that slightly older children generally seem to be less pleasant/more manipulative to him, maybe a case of age dominance?? It's tricky when sometimes they can be fine (& he enjoys playing with them) and the parents are lovely. I would be mortified if he treated others like that (although appreciate that it might happen).