Best friends - this is all new to me with dd 4

[puddle]

DD has recently aquired a best friend. They are both 4, 5 in September and starting school together. They are very very sweet together and I like this little girl a lot.

Anyhoo....I am beginning to get a bit worried about dd's preoccupation with Best Friend, almost to the exclusion of anyone else. While I am happy to encourage the relationship I am wary of her investing all her emotional energy in one other child. I have been gently trying to encourage other frienships but she is not interested.

Am I right to feel like this? I have a ds but his friendships have been so much more straightforward. Does it all pan out in reception when there are other children involved?

I dont know the answer but my dd (3.7years) is the same with a girl at her nursery. She has been in tears at nursery when someone else played with her 'best friend in the whole world'. Her friend was off nursery for a week with chicken pox and she did manage to play with someone else but when her friend came back they were inseperable again and she doesnt want to play with anyone else or share her.

Prepare yourself for a rocky ride. I think girls and their friends are continually a problem!

Babygrand I think perhaps this is a taste of things to come!

Seona do you try and encourage other friendships? I have invited other children to play but she has begun to say that she doesn't want to see XX she wants to see Best Friend instead.

batters that's lovely. That makes me feel better!

Yes - it is def a rocky road - my dd is 6.5 and all she wants in the whole world is a best friend ! She comes home from school all excvited and says "I've made friends with x - we're going to be bfs now " then the next day it's tears because x played with y and "wasn't very nice to me" !

I encourage lots of different friendships - in and out of school and she also is close friends with some of my own friends children - I encourage this by getting her to email them, speak to them on the phone occassionally etc - all really to make her understand that you can have good friends but not see them every day.

I am shocked by how nasty some little girls are already to be honest - one girl in dd's class regularly says to her "You're only 5 - you can't play this game !" - which sounds mild - but is of course incorrect and really upsets my dd !

Funny little bears girls !

Scatter that sounds like a very sensible approach. DD doesn't do a lot outside pre-school at the moment, although she does have a friend at ballet.