My child turns 18 soon, we live in a rural area in the UK, we home educated. Yet reading this piece has brought up so many emotions Laura, we went through exactly the same issues you raise in many groups, classes and social occasions — and unfortunately that continued through into teenage years as well (though I really don’t want to drag you down by telling you that!).

I’ve spent time, energy and more money than I had on outings (swimming, beach, parks, circus, laser tag, Macdonald’s, outdoor theatre shows, climbing walls and so on), birthday parties, sleepovers etc, bringing others into my child’s life…. And yet…. My child has never, not once, been invited to a birthday party (aside from the family gatherings for a couple of similar age cousins when they were very small — and that’s a whole other story!), a sleepover, an outing, even to another child’s house (again beyond toddler stage, when we would visit friends — who we also never saw beyond ‘school age’).

Luckily my child is a happily solitary and self contained introvert who is cool, confident and entirely satisfied with the couple of friends who he skypes and games with online, because as time went by and health issues deteriorated, for the last couple of years my organising and chauffeuring of group activities has fallen away…. And so have all the local ‘friends’. It’s broken my heart time and time again.