To not take my DC to baby groups

[Yeiscray]

Because 1 child is completely ruining it for us?

Said child (2) is domineering, bullies and hurts my 2 Dc (just turned 2 & 7mo), steals every toy they have hold of and litterally grabs them and throws them to the floor. It’s awful, my DC are in bits when it happens, the mum has mixed reactions from a half arsed apology to laughing it off (it’s never funny to anyone else) and I find myself cuddling my crying dc most of the classes. The classes are sometimes structured and sometimes free play so even a mix and he still does the same.

He hurts every child in the classes. We live in a small community, with limited classes and I don’t really have indepth talks to the other mums (just so busy with the DC) so can’t gauge whether others find it an issue but I know one mum was absolutely livid last week because her DD (around 1yo) was pushed off some play equipment by him, it was awful. I’ve had a word with mum- nothing changes, I’ve told the child no when he hurts my dc, ive had to pull him off my dc in full attack mode, I’ve moved my dc away from him, but he goes out of his way to get the kids.

Worried my kids will miss out, but equally worried I’m just taking them to get hurt.

Ugh. You can literally see him in prison uniform when he's older!
See if you can find another group, although tbh I always hated them & felt like an outsider. I guess quite a few of us do, we go to provide social time for the DC, not for ourselves.

I would find a different group. I went to a couple of groups in my town but stopped as I was always relegated to a blanket in the corner not included in the main circle as DD isn't sitting/crawling yet. I'm going to start up again after Christmas when she's bigger.

I used to go to a library singing group and there was one little lad who would charge around and snatch musical instruments off children, and cause his mother a great deal of stress. He has, however, grown up into a very gentle, friendly, smiling and polite little boy whose company I really enjoy now.

The unruly 2 year old may well just be going through a demanding developmental phase. I wouldn't write off the entire group just yet.

Unfortunately these are the only groups in the area unless I travel 40 minutes away (so a 80 minute round trip), but much for the kids. It’s such a hard juggle! Plus, one of the groups is really important to us so it would be such a shame but I do think it might just have to be at this point.

Mum is nice on her own, we’ve socialised once and she was ok, just has zero boundaries or discipline with her DC which is causing so much disruption.

Also.. I’ve got £30 tied up in pre-booked classes that they also attend. AIBU to ask for the money back so we could spend it on petrol and packed lunch at the park? 🤔

@Snowpaw we’ve known the boy since they was around 6-7 mo, he has been like this since he was mobile (he’s now 2.5). It’s been a long phase I know that 😅