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Nobody wants to play with my child!

59 replies

Desperatemother93 · 02/05/2026 17:14

My son is 3, he is very social and constantly looking for children to play with, but unfortunately most children don't want to play with him, he has good time in the nursery and has lots of friends, the issue is when we go to parks or play area, most people don't want their children to play with him mostly is the parents not wanting their children playing with him. And it puts me in a weird place because he keeps asking me why the children don't want to play with me? I tell him sorry I will play with you but he still unhappy, it has become so stressful that I avoid going out with him, because if I do he wants to go to playground and most of the time the children just wanna play by themselves but he wants to play with them and if he doesn't listen I take him home and he starts crying for many hours about it, or I give him some candy or ice cream to keep him quite,,, nowadays I do all my shopping and errands online or
when he is in the nursery, I am thinking about increasing his hours or having another baby just to play with him because I feel he is very lonely and a social person, I don't understand why is it like that? when I was growing up I was very popular had lots of friends from all backgrounds everyone wanted to play with me, when we go out we used to find many children to play with my parents let's us play outside all day and we just went home to eat and sleep, but now that I have a son I see no one wants to play with him,I feel like I had children in the wrong times, people sometimes leave because of him because he keeps trying to play with their children and I have to physically grab him and take him home, and he starts crying all day I don't want to go home I want to play it breaks my heart to hear it, ,,How do you deal with such situation? Many people told me have another baby to play with him.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Sadworld23 · 05/05/2026 05:13

Do you live near me bc my DS3 is much the same, to the point of embarrassment.

If their children won't play, he chats up the parents.

BigBrownBoogyingBear · 05/05/2026 06:55

I'm also curious about what/how he wants to play with the other DC @Desperatemother93. Football? Tag? Or imaginative games like families?

Also how old are the DC that he's trying to engage with?

I used to get slightly irritated when random DC would latch on to my DC at the park. Mainly because the parents would then just go and sit down, leaving me to mediate/supervise/invent games (DC is autistic so I couldn't just leave them to it).

I agree about taking props with you - bubbles, balls, chalk. They seem to attract other kids.

Hackedoffinoldage · 05/05/2026 08:22

SiberFox · 04/05/2026 20:27

To all the people suggesting to get him a baby sibling so he always has company… 🤦‍♀️ Actually don’t even know where to start

Who is suggesting that? Literally all the comments have said the opposite to that idea!

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SiberFox · 05/05/2026 08:59

Hackedoffinoldage · 05/05/2026 08:22

Who is suggesting that? Literally all the comments have said the opposite to that idea!

People in OP’s actual life

pineapplesundae · 05/05/2026 22:57

Poor baby. This too shall pass.

Springsummertime · 29/07/2026 15:40

Very strange behaviour! Are you playing with him?

Gonnagetgoingreturnsagain · 29/07/2026 16:04

I can contest that my nephew (3 in October) though apparently he has friends at nursery when at a playground he has no interest in other kids his age, is happy to play alone at home and when he’s out.

ImpatientlyWaitingForSummer · 29/07/2026 16:15

I had this on Monday, my two year old sounds just like your child, very sociable and loves playing with other children. I took him and his one year old sister to an artificial beach (small so I could have my eyes on him the whole time), and watched him say to various children “can I play with you”, who largely ignored him or carried on, which is obviously understandable as they were with friends/siblings. I kept bringing him back and saying “I can play with you!” in a very cheerful tone but it just wasn’t cutting it 😂 in the end I spotted a child slightly older playing by themselves so I suggested to my boy that he played with them which he did and they sat together and played in the sand, but boy it broke my heart a bit watching him before that!

Gonnaeatalotofpeaches · 29/07/2026 16:40

Both my daughters live to play with other children too. They are just turned three and four years old.
We live in France and the parents here seem very hands off in playgrounds so the children do just tend to play together. My girls make new friends daily out and about. Maybe your son needs to move to the continent where the children will get him haha
I find it weird the parents don’t interact with your son if a child approaches me and my daughters when out I always chat with them.

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