6 year old ds being aggressive with best friend.

[Dingbatgirl]

Hi .... my 6 year old has been hitting his bf, he has known him since baby days. He pushed him in the face yesterday and shouted in his face, all the bf did was pass his coat to him. The problem seems to be competitiveness between them; they are like siblings - but if this carries on, my ds will lose the friendship. His bf is a gentle little boy and is upset, but my ds is also upset, they both came out of school crying the other day. My ds is having help at school because he has difficulty with his social skills (taking turns, etc), and he also has difficulty emphasising with people. Does anyone have any advice or experience of this? I have obviously reinforced this is not acceptable and have set up reward chart (which worked very effectively last time we had a problem). Kids, eh?!

My DSs who are 9 and 7 have both gone through this. It comes and goes. DS1 has a very competitive relationship with his bf also known from baby days. They are in the same class at school. At times they get on really well and can't get enough of eachother. Other times I have had to pull them off eachother before they cause injury.

Over the years I have worked on making sure DS1 has developed hobbies not involving bf such as cubs and orchestra. Their relationship was a bit intense and they both needed a bit of space.

I think the empathy thing will come with maturity.