Roughhousing

[Screamer1]

I've posted about my ds before. He's just 3, very vocal and boisterous with a highly active imagination. He loves imaginary play involving fighting trolls and being a brave knight etc. DH tells him lots of stories and makes up adventures for him.

Recently he's started playing more aggressively and I'm worried we've somehow encouraged this. He pushed another child at nursery today. I spoke to his nursery teacher and told her that sometimes my DH encourages him to roughhouse becuse it's like ds has excess energy. His key worker said we should stop this.

Any advice or similar experience?

I agree with his key worker. You are encouraging and normalising rough play at home so it is unsurprising if this carries over to his time outside the home. Does your DH only do stories about trolls/knights/fighting, or does he cover a broader range of topics?

FWIW I have a 3.6yo and an 18mo who are both boisterous with excess energy, as are most DCs their age. I deal with it using plenty of fresh air and exercise: swimming and (for the eldest) gymnastics classes, playgroups/soft play, park visits, 'kitchen discos' whilst I cook dinner, and walking instead of taking the car where possible (eg preschool run). No rough housing necessary.

No definitely not only stories about those topics. I do the primary care so most of the time ds is with me and I do the same as you. Lots of running around outside, playgrounds, soft play, dancing around at home, dens etc.

Oh and just to explain DH only does that kind of play occasionally, it's not a regular form of play.