Other children's behaviour at toddler groups

[inscotland]

So DS was playing today with one of those little tyke red and yellow car things at toddler group.

He doesn't sit in it much - just plays with the door or pushes it around but it is the toy he always plays with.

Now at this group he is the youngest at 14 months old. Most of the other children are between 2 and 4. When playing today the same boy on 3 ocassions came up and knocked him out of the way and took the car to play with himself. DS just looked at me and cried.

Sound daft but I really felt for him and found myself a bit upset too.

My intention is that if he ever did that to another child he'd be told to give it back and find another toy to play with.

Is this just something I need to get on with. The above sounds a bit basic and silly now that I read it back but he gets really upset when another child just pushes him out of the way to get to a toy that he's been happily playing with.

Am I being overly sensitive? If so please tell me to get a grip!

I think it's instinctive.

The first time a little boy pushed over my DD in the playground, I had a genuinely horrifying, crystal-clear flash of wanting to grab him by the hair and slam his face into the ground repeatedly. I didn't, obviously, and I had never felt anything like it before. I am really not the child-smashing type! I honestly think it is instinctive.

That said, I do intervene at toddler group and tell the snatcher (whether my DD or another child) to give the toy back to the snatchee and wait for their turn.

It ought to be complusory to have more than one of those cars at Toddler Groups! They always get fought over!!

I would probably stay close and intervene too and tell the snatcher to wait for thier turn. As sazzlesA says, parents with more than one child can't be in 2 places at once and might just have missed it happening (or may be sat in a corner gossiping and ignoring thier child!) You may need to set quite a short time limit for door playing though, as others have said, an empty seat is just too tempting for a toddler.

NOT that I am saying Sazzles does this!! Just read that back and it sounds awful!!

Some parents do though

That makes no sense either!

I am NOT saying Sazzles sits gossiping and ignoring her children!! It's only possible to watch one at a time and when they're running round a room that can be hard with just 1, never mind 2!

There are some parents at our toddler group that do this though and it is usually thier children who are running amok, unsupervised and pinching toys...

Have I redeemed myself yet?

Phew!

Quick question, you said its the toy he always plays with and it was taken away from him a number of times, was he maybe playing iwht it a long time and the other kids wanted a go?

I agree that the other children probably think that it's free because he's not actually sitting in it.

Just wait until he's two. He'll probably be the one snatching toys off the younger ones no matter how many times you tell him off for it. It's normal and it doesn't mean that the other parents are bad.