Hun you did nothing wrong in my parenting book! I think we read off the same page! Be close enough to help if they need you but not so close as to smother. On Saturday after swimming we went to Maccas with the juniors and my DS (13mths) was running around with kids MUCH older than him - maybe 5/6yos - on the play equipment. He would get buffeted about as they ran past him and he would stumble and fall but just picked himself up and ran off again. He loved it - as you say, it is so infrequent that they get to interact with older kids, before primary school anyway that I think its important for them to learn how to act.

I think maybe your DH was projecting his own feelings onto you??