Warning, this might be a ramble! I'm not really sure what I'm after, but here goes:

DD seems to be a bit of a follower. As in, she'll pick a kid, and follow. She has a best friend at daycare, and she just does exactly what she does. Granted, I haven't observed them for long periods of time, but when I drop her off she immediately follows/copies M. Eg this morning after she gave us a hug and a kiss she turned around, and M pretended to fall down. So A fell on the ground. M laughed and got up, so did A. It's the same every morning, she goes over and just copies whatever M is doing.

It happened on the weekend too, we went to a party for a 3yo and one for a 2yo. At the 3yo party she only knew the birthday girl, so she just kind of stuck to her. To the point that she copies things she wouldn't normally do and knows is not allowed. Eg. L climbed on the window sill and jumped on to the couch, so so did A. L started wrestling and screaming, so did A, and it's pretty out of character. Same thing happened at the next party, she met a little girl her age and copied everything. End of the night, the girl went to go see her dad who was off playing cricket and A automatically followed. I asked her not to go, as she didn't know anyone there and didn't want her getting hit by a stray ball. She was so disappointed that she couldn't go and follow.

Like I said, I don't really know what I want from this. I guess I want her to be able to make her own decisions. To decide on her own that even though her friend is swinging upside down on a pole, it's maybe not a great idea because we've asked her to go under previously. I also know she's only so young, things like this are going to take time.

I think maybe it's also a personality thing. In all three examples above, the other kids are very outgoing and... I don't know how to describe it, they're just not afraid to get out on their own and run the show lol. Whereas DD has always just stuck close to Mum and Dad and it's only since January that she's started to actually willingly go off and play without us. She was in a situation in January that we were on holidays with another family, and DD was much more outgoing than their little boy so she was kind of the leader there.

So maybe it's just a personality thing? There's been a more dominant kid each time and so DD has just gone with the flow? Gah I don't know lol. I suppose I don't want her to be a follower when she's older. Right now it won't be an issue, what can they really get up to? But I want her, when she's older, to be able to say no without fear of then not having that friend I guess.

I don't know if this is even something to think about at this age?