Friends have to be one of the best things about life and our childhoods, but it can be incredibly hard as a parent to watch your child navigate friendships.

If you see your child being left out or dealing with friendship drama, we just want to be able to fix it for them, but should we? We are excited to have Psychologist Deirdre Brandner back on the podcast to help us unpack how friendships develop through childhood and how we can support our children along the way.

In this episode we discuss:

- Navigating friends in the early years from kindy, to primary school to high school

- The role of the parent in helping children navigate friendships

- If a child comes home with a friendship issue, what is the best approach for a parent to take

- Some common mistakes parents make when trying to help their child navigate a tricky friendship situation

- Deirdre's tips if your child isn't making friends

- What you can do to support your child make friends

- Tips for parents if your child has chosen a friend that you don't like

- If there is a "normal” level of friendship drama that parents can expect their child to go through

- If there is a particular gender more likely to experience friendship drama over another

- Sometimes little ones will come home and say ‘no one played with me’. Deirdre shares her advice on what we should say if they say this

- Deirdre's advice for parents wanting to help their child build friendship skills

- Do playdates and birthday parties help to build children's friendship circles or can they make them feel more left out?

- What to do if you see your child’s behaviour dramatically change as a result of hanging out with a child whose family may have different values to your family.

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Parents You've Got This offers antenatal and postnatal parenting education and Masterclasses from the planning phase to early preschool. Learn more: ⁠⁠parentsyouvegotthis.com.au⁠⁠

Credits: Producer Dean Thomas, Camera person Tim Hehir, Content and Hosts Parents You've Got This