I need some parenting support please - I'm second guessing myself on DD(5) socialising and need a sense check! So we've noticed at parties, she tends to play by herself quite a bit rather than trying to play with any of the other kids or going with any of them who happen to ask her. She seems pretty happy about this, we've tried doing some gentle digging as to whether she prefers playing by herself or would rather play with others and she reports that she's happy so trying not to make a big thing out of it. Then today, I had to pick her up from school for an appt and then it was lunch break when I dropped her back so they were all out on the playground. I dropped her in the playground then had to walk back around to get out, so was able to watch her a bit without her knowing I was there, and she was just by herself for most of it. She'd go up to groups with an adult in and kind of stand on the periphery, then they'd go off and do whatever they were doing and she'd half heartedly follow, then stop and turn around and looked a bit lost (probably massively projecting there!). A lot of the kids we've seen at parties seem to only want to do things with another child - so there's some girls that she's probably closer friends with who will spend the whole time together, hold hands, run around together etc but she just doesn't really get involved. And at school drop off in the morning while waiting to go in, some kids will come up to her and try and talk to her but she doesn't really engage that much or take the opportunity to go and join them. She seems happy in herself and any time we've tried to subtly explore she's adamant that she likes doing her own thing, but obviously to watch it really hits your heart and I'm scared she's going to feel lonely/not have any friends! So I'm really torn - do we try and get a bit more forceful to encourage her to play with the other kids, or do we keep backed off and accept that she's happy and to not try and change her based on our perception of what she "should" be doing. We've not really addressed it so far cos I think you can always address something, but you can't unaddress it - so I don't want to make it a big deal til I've really thought it through, but would really appreciate some objective advice!