Should I be worried DS only plays with girls

[frostyfeb1]

My DS5 (almost 6) is in Y1 he is a gorgeous, kind & funny boy. He's always been gentle and empathetic. Since he was in nursery he's always had firm friendships with the girls in his class. He doesn't really enjoy football or rough play (although he loves rough play with his brother at home). When he was first at school he loved magic and loved to play wizards and frozen - ice powers were of course the coolest kind of powers he could imagine 😂. However he now loves more "traditionally" boy things especially dinosaurs and sea creatures. I've never had an issue with him playing with the girls before except now he's started to notice he's the only not invited to girls parties and says things like boys don't want to play with me only the girls and I'm worried as he gets older and the girls get more close knit he will begin to be left out and lonely. For example the last few years have been mixed birthday parties but this year it's started to segregate and he's been invited to a few mixed parties and 3 all girls but no all boy parties but there have also been all girls parties held by his friends he's not invited too. Lots of the girls have play dates outside school or go to dance classes etc together. My son does go to judo and swimming outside school but doesn't seem to have formed any friendships here - maybe they are more solitary clubs if that makes sense. Just wondering if there are any other mums who've experienced similar with friendship groups and how it turned out for your children as they moved through school?

My ds was like this but has slowly started to play more with boys now he is 7.5 years old. He still has friends that are girls. My oldest veered more towards boys but also has some friends that are girls. I actually find it very odd and outdated that parents organise parties for only girls or boys. I will never understand why a parent would choose to leave out a child's friend because they happen to be the opposite sex to there child. When parents did this to ds I tried to encourage him to build better friendships with the kids whose parents did include him. Unfortunately i found it quite difficult to overly encourage him to have a friendship with a nice child whose parents excluded him because he was a boy. Thankfully it only happened a couple of times.

My younger ds solely played with girls at infant school and attended their play dates and parties as the sole boy and then went more towards boy groups towards the end of junior school.

Have you made any connections with other parents.

Often connections between parents flow down to the kids especially at such a young age. Maybe find out who he'd like to play with and arrange one on one plays and meet the parents.

He is a great age for beavers, and that would be a mixed club that skews male to perhaps widen his social circle. As clubs go I think it's great for bonding!

This was my DS. Yes, I had a few worries and yes there was a tradition period where I felt he was on his own. However, he has now made friends with some boys in the class and is invited to parties. You have years before he reaches high school for him to connect with other boys. If he still doesn't, then he has a huge pool of new people to meet at high school. My DS didn't understand rough play, and the constant fighting with people you are supposed to be friends with. As the other boys matured he found connections with them.

Does he have hobbies or groups outside of school? That was fundamental for my DS as he had a busy and interesting life outside of school.