7 Year Old Friendships

[SarahConniesMom]

In my daughter's first grade class is a relatively new classmate.  This new 7 year old girl has no friends and has picked my daughter as her choice as friend.  My daughter is friends with everyone.  However, the new girls mother has approached my daughter and asked her on more than one occasion to be a friend to her daughter.  Unfortunately, this new girl is bossy.  My daughter has told me she feels badly for the new girl because she has no friends and has latched on to my daughter who has reached out to her out of compassion.  Tonight she was crying to me about this because she doesn't like playing with this new girl and has other friends but feels badly when this girl starts to cry about not having anyone to have as a friend.  I let m daughter know that it was ok to not be friends with this girl and to definitely let her know that she doesn't appreciate it when she is being bossed around.    How can I help my daughter navigate this issue. She has girl friends on all sides telling her that they don't like the new girl and she is feeling caught in this.

[heatherlynn22]

you should tell the teacher about the new girls mother approaching your daughter. i think that is a bit inappropriate. i would be miffed if some strange woman walked up to either of my sons and told them (or even asked them) to be friends with her child without me present. i don't something about "stranger danger" even if her child was in their class.

[SarahConniesMom]

Thanks for this advice.  I am planning on discussing this with the teacher tomorrow and sending an email.

[jdtm]

Could you speak to the teacher about this issue?  Perhaps the teacher could pair this "new girl" with another child more suitable to the "new girl's" temperatment.  Just a suggestion .....