My 2.5 year old doesn’t have “friends”

[Whathefisgoingon]

Should he? He goes to nursery 3 half days a week, and I take him out somewhere every day (park, beach) - he also does a couple of toddler classes.

Still, I don’t have any friends with children his age and so he doesn’t have any friends. I don’t know if there’s anyone he plays with at nursery more than others etc.

Am I overthinking this or should I drag myself to some play groups to get him some mates?

He’s very sociable and I feel bad!

Well, I think she’s very unusual.

Does your DH have older children? Does he work in childcare? Does he have qualifications in child development or has he studied it in anyway?

If not, then you can absolutely ignore what he says because it's baseless drivel.

some chicken are different. I noticed dd1 from that age did not have any friends. She is now 11 , still no friends. i was worried first now i am used to it . She is happy and it does not bother her. dd2 have tonnes of friends and lots of playdates requests.
DH says the same who cares about friendship. She s got siblings.

Last year , i dropped her to school . She went and stood on her own . Her classmates were in a circle and none of them said Hi to her or vice versa. She was so focused on gate . That day I felt how alone she must be feeling at school. But she never complained .

Every parent meeting i have asked same question to her teacher about her friends circle . All i have been told she is very kind and likes to read books while others play with friends
But i feel i could have arranged few playdates for her when she was younger.

Your child is still young. But if its still not happening by the age of 5 0r 6 . then I would arrange play dates etc.

Sorry auto spellcheck, meant to write children not chicken

This^ Children his age do "parallel play" and your DH is wrong. Friendships - singling out a certain child to play with regularly - begins about age 5 or 6.

It’s far more normal for kids that age to parallel play than do what you describe.

And as ever - anecdote doesn’t equal data.

DD1 didn't have friends as such at that age, perhaps some children she started to mention more than others. She became friends with another girl who went to the same nursery in reception class, and they are still good friends now aged 17. DD2 on the other hand, really hit it off with another child she was the childminder with at the ripe old age of nine months, the other child was 18 months! They were inseperable from the start, it was really cute. Sadly the girl moved away when they were quite small, but I didn't realise it was possible for them to form such attachments with other children at a young age.

However, they are all different and not having a particular friend at 2.5 is nothing to worry about. As it turns out, DD1 is fab and has lovely friends in a usual way, DD2 seems to be almost a magnetic personality! But I think it's quite unusual to have particular friends at 2.5. It's more when they start school, and even then particular friendships can take a year or two, or more, todevelop.

No 2 year old has friends. They have people they play sis by side with. But there's no friendship bond. They aren't old enough for that yet.

Please don't worry about it.