My OH works 6 days a week and 3 of those days is out the house 17 hours. He works two hours away and his work basically want blood for him, and because it will give him extra money he does all the hours they ask him to do! So that basically means that Brandon spends the majority of the time with me in the house, or i take him out walks, go shopping etc. Some days tho, if the weather isnt great, we'll just have a wee day in the house!

Anyway, my MIL basically told me yesterday that Brandon is not getting enough interaction with other people and will go grow up to not be good in social situations! This really really upset me because I have always thought of Brandon as such a happy, smiley wee boy...he is always laughing! My family live 4 hours away so its not as if they can see him all the time...and my MIL lives half an hour away...I would go over to hers more but I cant afford the petrol all the time, so I only go over once a week!

Am I setting Brandon up to be bad in social situations?! Me and my OH are quite quiet people so I never expected Brandon to be a loud person anyway!

Thanks for reading x x x

Do you have a mums and tots group near you so he can interact with other children?

personally i think its only when they get 12m + that they should be interacting with other children but i cant wait til Fins old enough to go to a mums and tots group

plus, you might get friendly with mums you can meet outside of that group with a LO of the same age

I dont think you are doing any damage... he's still only young

He is very young still so I really dont think you should worry about it at this stage, most kids need interaction after 12 months - your safe and wonderful environment is helping him become a loving and wonderful person, never doubt your parenting hun - mums know best what is good for their LO xxx

PS. When my mum had me I only started interacting with other children when I was 5, till then I was spending majority of time with mum. I do consider myself a very bubbly and sociable person with no problem of interaction whatsover

If that's the case then Earl is going to be a recluse!

You can only do as much as you can. Trying too hard can do harm rather than good.

I live in a tiny village, 1 bus per day runs through at 8am, back at 4 to service the local town for the school kids. My husband takes the car and works shifts so it's not often we get out. We try to take Earl out of the house and village once per week. We've recently started to go swimming too when hubby's work permits. We go out for a walk every day with the dog so Earl gets plenty of stimulation but there's no avoiding the fact that 24/7, he's with me lol. Family ive hours away and bluntly, I have no friends lol.

My take on this is as long as he' happy and feels secure, and the experiences he does have are good ones, then he'll be fine. I know it's a strange comparison to make but it's like socialising a puppy. It's the quality of the experiences that matter rather than quantity. For example, you can expose a dog to as many busy roads as you like, but a lorry gets too close and they get scared, you're often back to square 1. It's important that they know that that lorry is scary, but keep scaring them, and you'll make them scared of the road entirely. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks so much! Whenever we are at MIL's then my SIL is there with her baby who is 3 weeks younger than Brandon so he does get some contact with another child! I have been meaning to ask my HVs about parent and child groups...I just keep forgetting! I will go down to the clinic and ask them next week.

I always make sure that Brandon is having fun, I dont plonk him in front of the telly or anythin, I am down on the floor playing with him a lot!

My MIL looks at her two grandchildren and sees that Brandon is a lot quiter than my SIL's baby, but that in my opinion is because they are two different people who have two different parents! Like I said, me and my OH are quite quiet where as my SIL and her OH are VERY loud people who dont stop talking! x x x