Friends of ours had a daughter, who is now 6. They were the only people who had a kid in our group until our daughter (who is now 3 almost 4) was born. Because of this we have gotten closer as friends. Our daughters have pretty much grown up together. My daughter absolutely idolizes this little girl. In her mind this girl is her best friend. Well our friend’s daughter is now in 1st grade and our daughter is still in daycare. The past few times we have gotten together with the girls, our friend’s daughter has been kind of mean. Bossy, controlling, and when she doesn’t get her way she will exclude my daughter or run away to “be alone”. She will yell at my daughter, things like “leave me alone”, “go away”, “stop”. This past weekend we all went camping together, I prepared for some unpleasant moments to occur between the girls, but what I wasn’t prepared for what I witnessed. Our friends daughter was talking to another friends older son (12 years). My daughter wanted to participate so she stated a random anecdote “I saw a spider in my house”. She repeated it and got no attention so she stated the little girls name, and again got no attention. I watched her little mind work and saw her realize she “was being impolite” (something we’ve been working on) so she tapped her on the shoulder and said “excuse me” with a smile on her face. Our friends daughter then turned sharply towards my daughter and shouted “stop!” In my daughter’s face and then turned back to the boy. I watched disappointed and hurt wash over my baby. She ran to me and jumped in my lap and cried. I started crying because I’d never seen her look so hurt. It’s been a few days but it just keeps replaying like a nightmare in my head. We really love this girls parents. My daughter is getting older and realizes that she is being rejected by this girl she absolutely loves. It’s okay for the 6 year to not want to play with a 3 year old, but my 3 year old doesn’t understand why. And as much as I tell her she still wants to play with our friends daughter. I feel like I’d be a bad parent by allowing this behavior to continue by forcing them together. We don’t want to lose our friends, but I can’t have my daughter’s beautiful spirit get broken.
Read more on PeanutThe views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.
Learn more about our guidelines.