I know 3-yos are hard work and can be stroppy but DS (3.7) just seems to have gone off the scale! He is lovely and chatty and in fact very caring 90% of the time - but we have just got back from the park where he had an absolute screamer because we were with friends and I pushed another child on the swing (while also pushing him). I refused to stop doing it so it escalated into a complete, hysterical, thrashing-about fit and I had to drag/carry him home. It's not the first time either and one thing that's worrying me is that this happens when we see other children - he refuses to play with them and hates it if I give them attention. Yet he's OK at nursery (if a bit quiet) and loves playing on his own and with me. No lack of imaginative play or eye contact or chattiness - he just seems to hate having friends! (I posted about his anti-socialness a while back - it's got worse!)
Has anyone had a child do this and then grow out of it/grow up relatively happy and sociable? Any tips about what to do? I am firm, I don't back down in the face of a strop, I carry through with consequences, I keep my cool (mostly!) and I try to be supportive and loving too - nothing makes any difference.
This sounds awful now but I feel like such a pariah as well. Everyone else's 2/3/4yos are playing happily together and I'm dragging screaming DS off home - with increasing frequency. I feel like they must be thinking he's disturbed or abused.