My 10 year old daughter's impulsivity and need for excitement and stimulation often leads her to make poor decisions that get her in trouble. This, not surprisingly, leads other parents to not want their child to play with my child. We tend to have more success with boys (my girl is a bit of a tomboy), but as she gets older, I don't think mostly playing with boys is going to work so well. We've already had some families label my daughter as a "bad influence" and forbid their daughters to play with her. We had an unfortunate incident of web site visiting rule breaking that my daughter and her best friend from the middle of third grade to the middle of fourth grade engaged in that was the final straw for the other daughter's parents. Now that girl tells other children that they shouldn't play with my daughter!! I do have two families in my neighborhood that are patient with my daughter (they both have sons) so she does get invited to activities with them sometimes and there is one delightful (very smart) 10 year old girl that visits her dad every other weekend who we have over for sleep overs, but that's pretty much it. I actually understand the other parents' reluctance, but it seems like there is an opportunity here to teach their children compassion and understanding as well as the strength to follow rules even when someone else is trying to push them to push the limits. My husband and I sometimes say that people would be more understanding if our daughter's issue was something like epilepsy. They would be forgiving and compassionate about an epilepsy fit, they are NOT forgiving and compassionate about behavior fits.

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