One thing that really helped us was the phrase, "All of his friends (but one) are going to kindergarten next year." It is the truth, but somehow just saying that we could feel the tension and the concerns that we're horrible hot-housing parents setting our child up for a lifetime of stress completely evaporate.
I wish that had worked for us. Instead we got various lectures about how making new friends "their own age" was good for children's social development, only playing with older children was a sign of immaturity, etc.... Arrgh. Never mind that the friends that went up ahead of DD were 6 months older than her and the ones she is supposed to consider "her own age" are 6 months younger... What is the difference? None.
