Asking for a friend - is there anything you can do when you disapprove of a friendship between...

[emkana]

... your child and one of their classmates?

not really.

no - you have to let them sort it for themselves. What's happened?

This girl comes from a very disruptive family background, and she talks all the time about things that are not really age-appropriate (the children are six/seven years old) - all things that my friend would like her daughter not to know about yet.

difficult one. Your friend can make it clear to the other child that it she is not permitted to talk about those things in her house.

My dd has a friend she is always falling out with and it just does not seem a healthy friendship. The friendship has also been mentioned at parents evenings as a distraction to dd, and dd to her- I am not trying to paint dd as the complete victim. I have told dd that she must not let falling out with this friend put her of her work but have left it at that. Your situation seems worse, but if you ban this friend you will glamourise her.

Though one... we have had something slightly similar with DS's little friend. Unfortunately, DS has a special talent as a copycat and the worst timing in when to duplicate... so... we have limited the contact to short well supervised sessions, as DS was getting into trouble for repeating the same rubish in a diferent more strict environment.

DS is 4 yrs old, perhaps with an older child you can discuss more things or even ask child to ask the girl not to to get into that topic.

I broadly agree with cornsilk. If they don't learn from unsuitable friendships at that age, there'll be far worse to come when they are teenagers. What you definitely shouldn't do is protect your child from the bad consequences of the friendship - you can end up in an enabling role if you do that.

i also feel sorry for the child from the worse background - is she not deserving of any friends? there must be good in her for your friend's child to like her so by having good friendships, these elements will surely develop?

blimey yes we don't live in victorian england. let your child pla with who she chooses