Premeditated pushing

[tinyt]

Hi, I'm new to this site and was hoping for a little help.

DS is 2.5 years old and recently he has begun to tell me that he will push people when he sees them.

For example, I went to a friend's house who has 2 kids and before we even got there he told me that he was going to push both kids.

Is this common toddler behaviour? How do you deal with it? Do they grow out of it?

He's starting nursery soon and I'm a bit worried.

Thanks for any advice

He told you he was going to push them...did he actually do it? If not I explain that that sort of behaviour is not acceptable, and then ignore future references, or just change the subject when he says it. I don't know, I've never experienced this, I'm sure someone else will be of more help...

As jenny asked, what's important here is whether or not he actually follows thru with his "threat" or not, rather than just the fact he is saying it. He might just be trying to gauge your reaction to what he says, or trying to make himself feel "bigger". Does he play with any other kids who show this sort of behaviour towards him?

To mollipops
He carries his threat through. He is at his aunty's for the day and ds pushed her neighbours girl over. So his punishment was to stay in and not play in the garden with the other children till he said sorry to the girl. He was stubborn for about 10mins but he said he was sorry and hugged the girl and gave her a kiss. He has older cousins that play with him but they are all girls and are not too rough with him, but dh can be at times and ds loves it. I think that it is attention he is after even though he is an only child, but not spoilt. He knows it is wrong and knows mummy or dh will tell him off. He knows it is not nice as I tell him. People are telling me to ignore it he will grow out of it, but what if he pushes a child really hard.