Our 10 year old's new best friend is the boy every parent in the class group talks about

quiet_kettle_946015 Aug 2026

Since July our son has a new best friend. Every evening it's this boy's jokes, this boy's opinions, this boy's cricket bat. That part is lovely. The trouble is that his name keeps coming up elsewhere. Two messages in the class group about 'a few boys' disturbing lessons, and last week a mother at the bus stop told me, kindly, that I might want to keep an eye. Our son has also come home with a couple of words he didn't learn from us. I don't want to ban a friendship at 10, and I've never even met the boy. But I'm not sure saying nothing is right either. What did you do when you weren't keen on your child's friend?

3 comments

fig_spoon_27015 Aug 2026
We had this in class 4 ❤️ I asked the friend over one Saturday instead of worrying from a distance. Loud, very polite with me, ate everything. Once I knew him it was much easier to talk about the rest without sounding like I was against him.
violet_violin_157015 Aug 2026
Mine came home from his new friend with a whole new vocabulary 😄 Told him plainly: friends are your choice, those words stay outside the house. He accepted it surprisingly fast.
- amber_quilt_874315 Aug 2026
  'Stay outside the house' works at 10. At 13 you won't know half the words, or half the friends. The habit of him telling you things is the part to protect now.
cinnamon_sandal_789916 Aug 2026
My elder had a friend like this in class 5 and I said a lot, most of it wrong 🙂 What worked later was asking about what they did together rather than about the girl. Most of it was harmless. The bits that weren't, she told me herself once she stopped feeling she had to defend her.