My child’s (she’s 3.5) key worker at preschool wrote that we should ‘encourage a variety of peer interactions’ on the portal for parents. I need to speak to her to understand what she means but it’s hit a nerve, having been so unsure about being OAD until a year ago (now I’m 42 so too late even if I changed my mind) and we moved into a new village with very few kids her age just 18 months ago, amongst lockdowns.
We have no young family members in the country. My daughter has one best friend she goes to school with and we have lots of play dates outside of that together. The village mums group (less than 10 mums) is not really that active, it’s still pretty new and most mums have 3 kids so it’s a completely different dynamic. We love seeing her bestie (who is the mum’s only child; there is a non live-in half sister on her dad’s side) as it’s so easy being two mums with their only kids the same age!
My daughter is such a loving, caring and gentle person and goes to school 3x a week precisely for peer interaction, and I was under the impression she was thriving there.
I am now being so hard on myself for not having play dates with multiple others. As drop-offs have been in lockdown people have just gone to drop their child off, nobody really stays and chats. I’m a working mum too so not much free time. Why do I feel so defensive?! But even more so, I feel guilty.
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One-child families
Clearly failing as a mum to an only!
dontknowhow2help · 04/05/2022 22:16
Gettingthereslowly2020 · 04/05/2022 22:55
She has a friend and goes to school which is good. However, being dependent on one friend could be problematic - what if they fall out or no longer want to be friends? There aren't any other children around to make new friends with.
I know you've only just moved but you may want to consider moving to somewhere where there are more children. I imagine this will be more of an issue as she gets older.
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