Need opinions - will my 2yr old DS suffer coz of close friends' bad behaviour.

[Tissues]

Hiya - I'm new to this but i'm stressing about my friends son. He has very bad behaviour and the parents just let him get away with it. He constantly tantrums about wanting toys etc and my DS has started to just give his toys up easily. They are both 2yrs old. My hubby and I both get on well with the parents but they just give in to their son and our little one gets pushed asside. Should we stop seeing these people? do you think our son will suffer in the long term? How can we pull the parents up without causing offence? Has anyone out there had this problem before . Any opinions please... what would you do? Cheers.

Only thing I have learned about motherhood (over the last 25 months ) is a mother's instinct is the most reliable information source re her DC. If you feel uncomfortable that means something is wrong there. I would try showing them how I feel gently if they don't understand or help you I would still see them but maybe without children.

I hope you don't mind me saying but I think you are both being a little bit precious here.

I have a good friend whose lo is a much stronger personality than ds,and a lot more physical.Sometimes he needs to be reminded to be gentler.I think you could maybe make some subtle hints to your friend,or initiate stuff like saying "Oh it would be nice to take turns" to the child if he is snatching stuff,without it being nasty.The thing is in life there are always going to be more dominant children,and you cannot always protect them indefinitely.I don't think your dc will suffer in the long run.All children can be rougher sometimes.

That is if you want to preserve the friendship.

I don't mind any opinions, I change between these two opinions on an hourly basis! I do feel as though something is wrong - mothers instint- but also think that DS needs to learn to deal with situations - One thing that you both seem to agree on is that we (hubby and i) need to say more things that encourage nicer behaviour - something we actually aren't doing with respect to our friends child when situations occur - many Thanks.

Posts like this exasperate me - sorry!!

You say your friend gives in to her son but you are considering dropping a friendship because you seriously believe that exposing your PFB to a less well behaved child will somehow damage him for life...

You do realise that due to the law of Sod and as a karmic result of having written this post, any subsequent child you have will be Satan's Spawn.

By the way, I would not drop a friendship because of a toddler playing up.