How to deal with conflict on the playground

[rubyanne]

Hi all,

My 4yr old is in morning session nursery and often likes to join the children from her class on the local playground when I pick her up in the afternoon. Lately, a couple of the other children ( 4 yrs old) have been saying they don't want to be her friend or 'I don't like you'. I know this is normal, but she really takes it hard and cries her heart out when this happens. The mothers of the other two children don't seem to be bothered by this behavior and even laugh a little when they see my daughter chasing after the other two crying. As a parent, I want to step in and tell the other mothers how terrible they are for not correcting their children, but I know I can't. It destroys me to see her so upset other this, but I'm not sure how to handle it in a positive way. Does anyone have any helpful advice? Should I let her work it out for herself? Say something to the other mothers? I've tried avoiding the playground, but sometimes there are children who like to play with her there. Please help.

Hi, I have a 3 year old and something similar happens to him when he tries to play with some older children in the park that are probably around 4/5ish. When they laugh or say things like "go away" and "we don't want you to play with us" and it upsets my son, I say quite firmly but not too harsh "well that's not very nice/kind is" then I instigate something really fun with my son to distract him eg pull outdone bubbles and play chase with them (the other children then soon come running to play then!!) or I have a bar of choc and say "oh well, come on X (my son) lets go and have some chocolate and then I'm going to swing you so high you can tough the clouds" you actually see the other kids get a bit jealous that I'm (parent) is playing and there's couldn't give a toss just on their phones or talking to the other parents. I think distraction and not making a big deal out of it works.
However, if it's happening at nursery in the day as well then I would speak yo the nursery staff. If it's just playground silliness then I would just let it go.

Thank you! Bubbles- great idea!!