Thank you, I really appreciate your advice. I have a 6-year-old son, his mother and I separated earleir this year but it was very amicable and we are co-parenting well.

I have strong 'big brother' vibes and can play very well with my child, I think because I grew up with 4 siblings. My son has told me he loves playing with me and I am 'like an older brother' when we play. Is this sufficient in terms of playing?

I struggle to connect with the other parents at his school, most of them barely even make eye contact so it's very hard to initiate play-dates with the parents of his friends at school. His school has many parents from deprived backgrounds, I am more arty and middle-class I guess, but I try to make eye contact and be friendly, but with limited success. These people seem to live hard lives and the last thing on their minds is setting up play-dates for their kids.

I've been trying to make friends with other people who also have kids but finding very few opportunities to do so - I joined a dad's group but there's no children my son's age (they are older children) and I don't really enjoy spending time with the dads. I have my own circle of friends but they are younger than me with no kids.

Please could you give me some advice about this? Thank you!

Edit: I live 2 hours drive from my siblings, they all have kids but their kids are older. It would be a huge effort to drive 2 hours there and 2 hours back every weekend just for my child to possibly play with my nearly teenage nephews and nieces. Also my siblings and I have somewhat insecure relationships with each other due to childhood traumas, so organising play-dates can be very difficult.