Should I be worried?

[Silversurfer69]

At the risk of sounding like a paranoid parent, I’m worried about my 12 year old son. One of his friends at school has just started giving him money. Not a lot, £2 yesterday, which I told my son to give back, but today he was in school with £90 and gave my son £20. My son said he didn’t want it, but the boy wouldn’t take it back and said he’s got lots of money. This starts alarm bells ringing with me! Apparently the boy buys sweets from the local shop (£10 worth at a time) and hands them round his friends. He’s been telling my son that he is taking £100 a day out of his bank as he wants to buy a bike, but if he takes more than £100 a day his dad will get a message and find out. The boy also has an older brother in year 11 who my son says is a bit of a trouble kid. Is it just me, or do kids that age really have access to that sort of money? Needless to say, I’ve told my son that he needs to be very firm and give the boy the money back tomorrow.

I have a 12 year old and no, they don't have access to that kind of money. Nor would I be happy with them either giving or receiving those sorts of sums. You've done the right thing telling your ds to give the money back.

I think I would be wondering whether to have a quiet word with someone at school, to see what they could do. They could not mention names and let the parents know that he's draining his savings. It sounds like he needs a bit of support with making friends.

Yes I am considering telling the school, my son has asked me not to as he doesn’t want his friend to get into trouble as he says he’s a really nice boy. I asked my son if the boy is giving anyone else money and he said he doesn’t think so, as some kids have asked him for some and he’s said no to them - which kind of makes me worry even more that my son is being targeted for being naive (ie, luring him into something awful with the money - drugs etc). I don’t want to see the worst in people, but you hear so many awful things happening to kids in high school, I’m just on the lookout for anything remotely suspicious to nip it in the bud.

My ds was given cash regularly and i gave it back to school with the request they gave it back to his dm.

Money in envelope. Hand back to school.
No child should be bringing lots of cash to school and I would worry about where it's coming from. Tell them what's happened.

Tell the school so they can contact his parents. You’re right to be concerned.