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Dino fanatic

6 replies

Dinomum85 · 26/09/2025 20:41

My 6yo son just broke my heart….he's come downstairs to tell me that the other boys at school tell him that his love of dinosaurs is babyish, and are being mean to him about it. He bloody loves dinosaurs, but at an expert level....like he can tell you which one had the widest wing span, or the longest snout, with really obscure names.
I just told him that he shouldn't be ashamed of being different and loving different things, but not sure it got through. I think (as is normal) he has a very football heavy class...he just isn't bothered and feels left out.
I would never want him to change himself to conform but also don't want him to feel left out. Any advice?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
HevenlyMeS · 26/09/2025 21:34

God Bless You & Your Lovely Little Son
My Sons love dinosaurs & they're older than your Son, & They most likely always will
My brother always loved them too, way,way, beyond the age of 6
Wishing You&Yours all the utmost very best

ACR7 · 26/09/2025 22:08

I remember my brother being I for dinosaurs and he was definitely older than 6.

NJLX2021 · 27/09/2025 03:41

Aww, I feel very sorry for him - He was me as a child, multiple times. I was always growing out of things later than others. I have such a vivid memory of coming back from a summer holiday, excited to talk to my friends about the thing we were all "into" only to be told by all of them as a group that they were now too old for it, and they didn't like it any more.

Three paths you can help your son go down:

1, Conform. Encourage him to like older things.
2, Rebel. Do what he wants, when he wants it, fuck all of them.
3, Like his stuff, but keep it to himself so he doesn't get teased.

We all want to be number 2, but truth is most children are not that confident, especially as they near their teen years. It takes a huge amount of confidence to walk in the face of popular opinion as a kid. I wasn't, so I went down the third route, and kept doing what I love. I just learned to do it at home, and not mention it at school. Never got teased, kept my interests.. it kind of worked, but I wish I had been confident enough to do number 2.

Maybe you can help your son be that confident.

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Duskstar · 27/09/2025 04:35

Has he heard of palaeontologists? Plenty of adults devote their lives to the study of dinosaurs so it definitely isn’t “babyish” that your son loves them at 6. Do you live near any dinosaur museums/similar? Maybe if he met other kids/adults who shared his interest it would make him feel more confident.

In terms of school are there any clubs/activities he’s interested in? There must be other kids who aren’t football mad (his teacher might know who they are and what they like doing), maybe if he started doing other activities he’d find some common interests?

DiscoBeat · 27/09/2025 06:59

He's lovely! I used to do Dinovember with ours - every night they'd come downstairs during November and the dinosaurs had been doing some silly stuff overnight. My two loved that. Sorry his friends are being mean. Can you have a word with the parents?

EsmeWeatherwaxHatpin · 27/09/2025 07:05

He sounds amazing and just like my son at that age. The other kids don’t know what they’re on about. I’ll be honest, my son struggled with school at that age. He’s 10 now and settling beautifully into year 6.

Other kids can be rotten. Are there any that are similar to him that you can encourage friendships with?

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