Hi all - long one.
last night my DD (14) casually dropped into conversation that her friend had told her that on the weekend she had taken around 10 paracetamols when she had been at a sleepover at a family friend’s house and that she wanted my DD to tell the school today ( day of posting).
I immediately wanted to contact the mum who is an acquaintance . DD daughter had a panic attack / got very upset and said her friend didn’t want her mum to be told and insinuated it would make it worse and that she wasn’t sure if it was just attention seeking. She had already promised she’d tell the school and had emailed her tutor that eve to ask for a chat first thing today.
I couldn’t get to the bottom of why the friend felt this way and what had triggered it.
in the end I told both the girls ( her friend was on Snapchat and was doing live streams etc.. that eve) that I would give them until today to tell a teacher but if they didn’t, I’d ring the mum. I also said I’d be happy to chat with the friend last night if necessary ( she has my number and spends time here sometimes) and she respond with a “ I’m fine but thank you”
just had a call off the mum because the school has been in touch with her , so it’s clear the children did speak to a teacher. She was fine and wanted to know if I knew what was happening and if it had been going on a while ( I literally have zero context to why the friend felt so upset and yesterday was the first time it was brought up so I didn’t have anything useful to say) but she did say somebody in the family asked why I didn’t raise this with them last night. She’s a decent person and recognised it was a difficult situation and that my DD shouldn’t be made to feel like she’s in the middle and I’d made a decision that I thought was right.
However , I’m doubting my course of action now and feel v responsible that the child could have come to harm.
thoughts ?