I’ve got caught up in a row between two sets of friends and I’d appreciate some advice as to how best to advise them. One set of friends let’s call them A , have a young child who, to be honest, is rather spoilt. He’s used to getting his own way and does rather tend to throw his toys out of his pushchair when he’s thwarted. It’s not helped by the fact that he eats a lot of junk food and is allowed to stay up late playing on his iPad. One of our other friends, let’s call them B, has been staying with them. Anyway, a couple of days ago, the youngster overheard B being quite blunt and critical about him and his behaviour. He is now throwing regular tantrums, being incredibly rude to B ( and has said horrible things about B’s mother) and has told his mother to send the ‘nasty stupid man’ home. He refuses to talk to him and just shouts rude words at him. What makes it worse is that only a month ago, the youngster had a wonderful holiday with family B who really gave him a great time. One might say they really rolled out the red carpet for him. Family B don’t want the behaviour of the child to spoil their special friendship which goes back years but aren’t sure what to do. Should B just go home and hope it will all blow over or should he and his family back home take a stand and tell his friends that he is not prepared to be spoken to and treated like that and risk the friendship being over? What would you do?
