My children aren't perfect but I tried to teach them respect and don't tolerate bad behaviour especially in public.
One of my great friends who I see all the time has a 5 children. My 3 year old and her daughter the same age play pretty well together. But her older children a terrible. They yell at their parents, hit them, ignore them even in public it's embarrassing. They have even started speaking rudely to me when I'm around.
My problem is my 7 year old and her 7 year old are friends but her daughter is horrible to mine. She bosses her around. Yells in her face and makes my child cry all the time. I try to tell her just not to play with her but she seems smittened by her and the mother seems to defend her daughter most of the time when I try to make her daughter apologise.
And now my daughters behaviour is starting to change. She is mimicking little things from her friend and I'm not liking it.
My husband has told me he doesn't want them playing together anymore and In all honesty I'd rather her not either.
But I don't know how to go about doing this.
I have mentioned in the past to her about my concerns and she pretty much said you can't blame her daughter for my child's sudden bad attitude.
We are great friends, I don't want to loose her friendship but she is going to start asking why I'm not letting my daughter play with hers. What do i say????
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3 Replies
You just say no they aren't playing. Your kids come before any friendship.
I had this drama when my kids were 5 and 7 and friends kids were 6 and 7. It was hard. I decided for play and friend catch ups to be at mine, i put all the breakable/fav toys and messy toys like little lego and paint sets crayons etc away in my room when they came over, i sat the kids down once they got there and gave them the house rules at my house, i made them sit out if they were being unfair/mean or destructive (including my kids) and if my friend didnt like it she could always leave (however she never did). Before they left i made them all help clean up!! I would then sit my kids down and explain to them that we do not copy bad behaviour and if they do the toys that i put away didnt come back (a 24hr window to kick unwanted copying style behaviour in the butt!!) This worked a treat for us
Sometimes it's better the devil you know...you can't control how others parent so just focus on how you parent your own children. I promise you this, there will be another child/teen/adult/boss who will behave in a way you dont like. This is the time for you to teach your children a great life lesson