How do you prevent your child from playing with the neighbor's son?

Question

my neighbor's son and my son are a year apart and they always play together. he has bad manners and is mischievous, my son recently started taking him as a role model and it bothers me. i don't want them to play together but its almost impossible when they are right next door.

Answer 1

have 'playdates' where both parents are presents. Chances are he doesn't act up as much when his mother is there, and if he does she will probably see how you are with your son and feel slightly embarrassed about her son's behaviour. Good luck ! x  

Answer 2

explain to your son that while you cant do anything about his friend, you expect these kinds of behaviors from him and let him know exactly what you don't want him to do. start teaching him about peer pressure and how to keep making good choices even if his friends don't and talk to him about telling others to make good choices.

Answer 3

   I understand your pain it's not the kids that bother me it's the parents that allows kids to behave that way,with that being said try keeping your child in your yard and also talk to the neighbor about their child and hopefully they can correct their son's behavior.

Answer 4

Only let them play together at your house so you can watch them and reprimand any bad behaviors he is picking up.  

Answer 5

just tell him that he cant play with this boy any more and tell him why and if he refuse to do it then talk to the boy mather or to the boy and tell him to stop coming to ur son .

Answer 6

You're his mom. Tell him not to. And don't lie about it, either. Just say, "Sweetie, I dont want you playing with (name) anymore. He has really bad manners and I want you to act better than that." It's what my parents did with me and I didn't end up "emotionally scarred" and "torn down" or any new age psychobabble BS like that.

Answer 7

Simply tell your son he can't and explain to him why. Plain and simple.

Answer 8

You need to buy a paddle and USE it.

Answer 9

If I don[t like a child's behavior, or know that his or her home life isn't the greatest, I tell my daughter that they can't go over there. I let them come over to our house.  That way, they get to play together, and I hope that maybe we can be a positive influence in their lives.  

Answer 10

You aren't going to be able to keep him away from bad influences forever, so I would let the play continue, but speak to my son about how the neighbor's "bad" behaviors seem to be rubbing off on him. It's a great time to teach him about peer pressure and help him have responses ready to avoid doing things he knows is wrong.

The neighbor boy may come back and thank you someday for being a positive role model in his life.

Answer 11

Supervised play or if you really don't want to play, just say he can't play right now when he calls.

I saw something great in a magazine...a sign for your front door that you can change that says "Billy can play" or "Billy can't play right now" so that cuts down on the doorbell ringing constantly.  I wish I had known about that when we lived in the neighborhood full of kids who were ringing the doorbell constantly during nap time.