So here is the situation. I have a 3yo daughter (lets call her "Abby" for the story) who loves playing with her 3.5 yo friend who is the daughter of one of my wife's best friends (she's our goddaughter, lets call her "Mary"). She adores her and follows her everywhere and they play very well together. However, my goddaughter is closer to another friend ("Kate") who she plays with more often-- and Kate absolutely despises my daughter. I think it's because my daughter is a little younger or because she's possessive of her friend, Mary-- whatever the reason, it's obvious that she tries to bump my daughter out whenever the three of them are together.Today I went to the zoo in the morning just my daughter and Mary and the two were playing well and having fun until Kate showed up. My daughter ran to me crying 5 minutes later to tell me that the girls don't like her and don't want to play with her anymore. Kate told my daughter that Mary is her friend, not my daughter's friend, and she should go away. Mary didn't stand up for her and it made her so sad. I played with her the rest of the afternoon and the two other girls pretty much ignored her.I don't really know how much 3 year olds understand this situation and how they can/should process this. My daughter has lots of other friends and she gets along well with her friends in school. The problem is that she sees Mary as her "best friend" and I don't know if she would just brush this off or if she would see this as a rejection or betrayal. How would I help her process the emotional hurt that she's feeling?Hopefully, I'm just overthinking this and 3 year old just bounce back and act like nothing ever happened but I'm also curious as to what 3 years olds understand about these emotions. What would be some age appropriate ways to explain and help process this. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2xLQA1r
No comments:
Post a Comment