Psychologist Allison Keating answers your queries about life and relationships
Teenage friendships are made more difficult when one person is clearly left out. Image: Getty
Question: My husband and I have been in a friend group with three other couples since our now 14-year-old children were in preschool. The three girls were all great friends until they were about 11 or 12 and then there was a bit of a division, with two of the girls remaining friendly, and the other, my daughter, being left on the outside.
It didn’t help that I didn’t get my daughter a smartphone until this year and I have also banned social media. Recently we had everyone over for a barbeque to our house and it was very clear to me that my daughter was being sidelined. The other two were not being mean, but they definitely weren’t making any effort to include her and spent most of the time on their phones, making TikTok videos.