My DD, is pretty full on. She's 3 and finds it hard to share / take turns, has frequent tantrums and is generally a hand full.
She plays nicely with other children, but sometimes she is a pain. She snatches and finds it hard to take turns.
Last week she went to a dance class and one of the mums was telling me how she kept snatching another boy's bottle during the session. The mum told me that she made another boy cry. This is not a parent supervised class by the way, the mum just happened to catch some of this as she dropped her child off late.
I said to the mum ( not the boys mum who my DD reduced to tears ) ' oh no ' ' I'm always telling her and reminding her not to act like that. How can I get through to her ?! '.. the mum then said that it's usually that little boy who somehow makes other children cry, so he got a taste of his own Medicine for once. Me and the the mum then went on to discuss our little terrors and various things they do and various techniques we are trying. We often confide in each other about how we are trying our best to teach our children right from wrong.
A couple of days later, I saw THE mum OF the boy who my DD was mean to. I told her that the other mum had told me what had happened and that I was sorry. I also talk to this mum about how hard it is handling a spirited toddler etc and we often laugh about the stuff they get up to. Anyway, I was talking to the mum about it and said I was sorry and what a nightmare my DD had been and that we are working on these things. It was kind of light hearted ( for me ). The mum seemed light hearted at first and explained how her DS was sensitive. But his big brother isn't and if she ever tried that stuff with her, he would punch her in the face ( she said that quite aggressively ) I said, well, I guess she'll have to deal with the consequences of her actions then and kind of laughed.
It was fine. Nothing major happened. But after the interaction I felt like the boy's mum really didn't take it so well. The way she said that her child would punch my DD was quite aggressive. Children make my DD cry and vice versa. I wasn't telling her what happened to taunt her about it, I was apologising as well as continuing our chats about how hard it is to raise children and teach them how to not behave like animals. I get a feeling from her response that it's not how she took it though.
( excuse capital letters, I'm just trying to explain that the first mum I mention isn't the mum of the boy my DD was mean to, she's another mum who's child goes to this class too ).