Hi all, hope you can help!
My DS is a loving little one but at times can display aggression - towards his family, other children and even toys. He grows through different behaviours but only for a couple of weeks - scraping other children's faces (at nursery, which is the only time he has displayed aggressive behaviour there, the other times he is really good), biting, hitting, pinching - the usual toddler things.
DS goes to nursery 2 full days a week and has always enjoyed it. I truly believe it does him, and other children, the world of good.
My issue is that DH's family completely believe that it is the influence of nursery that makes him do these things - even though he has only ever scraped another child's face a couple of times whilst there, he hasn't done anything else 'antisocial'. They are set against the idea of nursery for children of his age - he is almost 2 - and DH's mum told me today that nursery is where he has picked it up, because it is 'learned behaviour'. Even though my nephew also goes to nursery and doesn't bite/hit etc. I bit my mum when I was younger too but didn't go to nursery or playgroup, so where did I learn that behaviour from?
I believe its 'normal' toddler antics, they all go through it at some age and we have to be consistent in our reaction to it, ie telling him 'no hitting' etc but giving it no more attention than that. DH's nephew doesn't go to nursery and my concern is that when he does something wrong its classed as his character, but when DS does something wrong its because he goes to nursery!
The aggressive behaviour is upsetting and challenging anyway without the added family pressure!
Can anyone shed any light onto why he may be doing these things and how best to go about stopping it?
Thank you very much for listening to my rantings!