My 13 year old son has no friends!

[Elzie1]

Hello. My 13 year old son ( who is my only child) is extremely shy with kids his age. He has no friends in school! He is a great students and he plays piano and Sax. He is almost a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Unfortunately he can’t find any friends! Recently he told me that he feels very uncomfortable when he is at school and around other kids. He thinks he is different with all the other kids, and he can not fit in. It is breaking my heart seeing that he has no one to call and no one ever calls him. He is not shy at all when he is around the adults. We don’t have slot of friends who have kids around his age and he has no cousins! He never looks upset or depressed, but he is often stressed out and irritable. Anyone has been dealing with the same issue? Do you think I coupd talk to his school counselor and ask for help? Do you know of any resources that can help us? I appreciate any recommendations.
Thank you

[Jess1-RO]

Hi @Elzie1

I'm sorry to hear your son has been struggling with making friends at his school, I can imagine that it must be hard as a parent to see your son struggling socially 

ReachOut does have some great resources about friendships that might be helpful for you here, here and here. 

I'm just going to tag a few parents here that I feel could give you some peer support from their own experiences  @taokat @sunflowermom @Tulip @Helpful_Mum @PositiveWhisper @hippy_mum, @Happy @Moggy3kids @Beemum 

[Den007]

My 12 year old son has the same exact problems!  He is also almost a black belt in Ju-Jitzu.  He has suffered greatly over the past few years from bullying at school.  These bullies started out as friends but then began bullying him.  He is very quiet and shy by nature so he attracts bullies.  

He is a straight A student and this is his first year trying cyber school which has gone well, but he still has no friends.  He is the nicest, down to earth kid and never has a bad thing to say about anyone.  He gets very depressed sometimes and I wish I could find him a good friend, but it seems impossible.  He is also hesitant to trust anyone after the betrayal of past friends.

I wish your son all the best and wish there was someway kids who share this common issue could link up.

take care!

[Sophia-RO]

Hello @Den007 , thanks for sharing your experience with us here. I am sorry to hear about your sons experiences with bullying. It is great that he has you to support him along the way. If you do want to share more about the difficulties that your son has been going through, please feel welcome to create your own thread by clicking 'Start a topic' in the top right hand corner .