6 year old does not say hi back to his friends

[HannahLouB]

Hello all,

I was wondering if anyone has experience of this.
My 6 year old son is very chatty, lots of energy and will hold a conversation. However when he is walking to and from school and his schoolmates see him and say hi, he says nothing back to them, some of his friends will stare at him confused or look at me or my husband.

Should we still just encourage him to say hi back and wave? He struggles to listen at school when its not what he is interested in. He is able and on target for his subjects.

He needs to wait and let his friends talk sometimes as he's so excited with his topic. Any ideas about how to help him learn some social cues?

Thank you.

I am a clueless pregnant mum with no kid, so sorry if I am missing something obvious.

Have you told your son that he should say hi to his friends, because it is nice/polite/make them feel good/make him look more friendlier? If not, is that a parenting principle?

I am from Hungary, and 40 years old, quite new to anything about parenting, and obviously what was used as parenting guide when I was young is not really applicable any more, but if that happened to me back home I would have got asked to say hello not just by my parents but any adult who is around.

I think this is relatively normal.. my kids sometimes just stare at friends if seen out of context (ie not in the actual school building) but this has gone away with age - they are all shy though.. I usually say Hi and wave for them or even stop and be friendly - I didn’t used to as I wanted to ‘force’ them to talk to their friends and I couldn’t understand why they didn’t - but I realised it was a relief for them if I made the first move and sometimes they would then copy my behaviour next time.. I also got myself very involved in the community (leading scouts, PTA etc..) which helped them see less of a divide between friends, community and family I think and helped their confidence.