My ds (7) has recently fallen in love with football and is practising loads in order to get better.
There are a hard core group of footballers in his class who have played every break time since year 1 and are pretty good of course.
Increasingly other boys in their year are starting to play more but the decision about who plays is made by just one boy, the best player. He usually says no to my ds when he asks despite saying yes to several other boys who have not played regularly in the past.
Yesterday the boy told my ds he couldn't play because he was 'rubbish' but let all the other boys who asked play.
I honestly don't think my ds is that terrible, certainly not hugely worse than the other ones who are newer to break time football.
He is so upset and angry about it. I'm going to speak to the boy's mother about it gently and 'ask her advice' so she doesn't feel defensive but we get on very well so she may sort it out.
Part of me thinks this is very cruel and excluding and part of me thinks, well this is playtime and it's a jungle out there and ds has to learn how hard life is. So we encourage him to practice his skills on his own and keep asking and practice out of school too. We say if he gets better eventually this boy will want to have him play.
But I'm so upset about it! I feel so sorry for ds and just want to make it better!