So, my children have a friend from the neighbourhood that would come over and play occasionally. It has become a lot more frequent recently and he is here every afternoon. Now with the added expectation that I will feed him afternoon tea. I know his mother and her partner and know that his home life isn't great. I guess I'm just worried that I'm going to end up caught in the middle of a potentially bad situation.
4 Replies
If home life isn't great he may be wanting to get away and finding safety in your care. I'd embrace it as much as you can. I doubt you'll get caught in the middle, maybe just let the mum know he is here every afternoon and he's fine over yours but you serve dinner at X time and need to send him home then :)
I was your kids friend and my best friends parents both welcomed me with open arms every day, every night, every morning. I'm all grown up now and boy do they get spoilt when I can swing it. Think on afternoon tea, make something healthy and cheap from scratch so it's not a financial burden and give him the space to be a kid in your space.
I had this situation. The hard part was that the kid was also not nice, obviously from how she grew up needing to be selfish and sneaky and bossy beyond her years to take care of herself.
it comes down to two things, can you do it for the sake of the kid without it affecting your own family? Can you set boundaries?
And secondly how bad is it at home? For me, at the end of the day, the child wasnt raised a way I find ok, there was neglect in my opinion, but no domestic violence emotional or physical, so I had to draw the line that it is what it is for that child and send her home. At the end of the day, its nice for them to have you, but if home isnt what it should be facs needs to know.
My daughters friend sounds similar, pretty ordinary home life. Consequently this makes her not the most pleasant child as awful as that sounds.
Maybe just set some boundaries.
Say once a week after school play until a certain time (obviously adjust to what suits you).
It's hard, your place is probably a bit of a safe haven for this child but at the same time you can't be expected to be responsible for this child all the time too.
If the home life is bad to the point you don't feel comfortable sending her home it's probably time to look at making a report.