How do I handle a friend of my son's who won't keep her hands off him?

How do I handle a friend of my son's who can't keep her hands off him? My 18-month-old has a friend who is almost 3 years old and is always touching him. He doesn't always mind, but she always has her hand in his hair or arms wrapped round his neck. What should I do?

Although you sound worried, this really isn't a big deal. There's no malice in the older child's behaviour. She just hasn't learned appropriate social boundaries yet when it comes to expressing her friendship. Give her one or two very simple rules to follow when you feel her behaviour is going too far ("We don't grab hair." "We don't grab people by the neck."). Other than that, your best bet is to distract the two of them with something more interesting to do when she gets "touchy". This behaviour will go away once she learns more sophisticated social and verbal skills.