My dd (6, almost 7) has for a while said one of her friends is quite bossy. She is part of a friendship group of several girls who are all nice, but said girl is a little domineering I think. She likes everyone to play her way and dd gets fed up with it, although it’s hard as this tends to lead what the group does. Dd can be stubborn and only want to do what she wants but she is not the type to force everyone else to do it, she will just take herself off and end up feeling left out instead. We have talked to her about this and helped her find solutions around some of these situations so she can play with her friends if she wants.
Move on to this week, dd said this friend has been looking at her and another friend funny and sort of sneering at them. Dd got quite fed up and stopped talking to her. I was chatting to the girls mum and said things seem a little odd between them and she suggested a play date. We had it at our house, just the friend and my daughter.
Tbh, after this I can see why dd gets fed up with her. She kept telling her “no, do it to this way” when they played and dd tries to say, “no” and gets shut down. She also made comments like “my one of these at home is better” and “how do you have fun playing in this tent, it’s so small”. The comments made me want to scream a bit ha. Dd came away a bit like “meh” after, I would say.
Is this just their age? Is it just little kids being completely socially unaware? It felt negative like “I’m better than you”. I really like the girls mum but I can see the friendship for dd becoming difficult. I want dd to be able to stand up for herself and recognise when a friendship doesn’t feel good, but also have strategies for if she wants to stay friends and not being dominated by stronger individuals. But this will also be hard due to the bigger friendship group they’re in.
I really struggle with all this as I never really fitted in as a kid and got bullied consequently and don’t want this to happen for dd too. I also know yr 2 is when girls can start getting… tricky. Any thoughts/advice/stories of similar situations?Thanks so much :)