Arrggh - little bully hurt my son

[Swirl]

Just really wanting to let off steam.....DS who is 2.3yrs was playing in Soft Play area in Leisure centre this morning and another boy who looked about the same age (taller but with much less vocabulary) basically followed him round and knocked him off things/took toys off him. I can cope with that as I guess it is normal enough behaviour for young children (even though DS has never done it). DS always stands back when someone does this and patiently waits until he can get on again etc.
Anyway next thing I see is the boy running up to my DS from behind, grabbing him round the neck and doing a kind of wrestle move! My poor DS fell down, his lip was bleeding, he was crying. I ran and picked DS up and cuddled him till he settled, trying not to make a big deal of it. So, so angry though inside. The other boy was there as part of the Creche so there was no mummy to reprimand him. I should have spoken to the Creche but didnt want to make a scene in front of DS (he just picks up every word you say.) We stayed on for another while but DS was quite clingy after that and noticeably wary of other boys running about.
Thanks for reading...feel better just getting it off my chest.

sorry should read pinching adults at his previous school.

Magnolia1, I meant - if you get involved early enough, it will not get to the cut lip stage. Sometimes you just see things going that way and it's best to step in and prevent further accidents. Saves you a lot of trouble. Seems obvious to me, but then again I have a lot of experience with agression in children . With ds and his friends and their 'fighting games' .

With ds who was 3 when his random violence was at its worst we had success with the old pasta jar. The problem was that he enjoyed making other children cry and that was his reward. Tempting him with a better reward encouraged him to change his behaviour (or maybe he just grew up a bit that month).

We are very gentle parents and he has never seen violence even on the telly so it was entirely his own idea. I think that he was quite a late developer in terms of empathy and being an only child so far he had not had to practice interacting with other children at home. I was quite shocked to end up with an agressive child and I don't know quite where it came from.

We did have difficulty with one mother whose boy is very delicate and prone to scream at the drop of a hat. He and ds attended the same playgroup. Ds found the child almost irrisistable and would make a beeline for him the minute he entered the room. I found that I had to be on constant watch to keep them apart, strangely the delicate boy found my ds irresistable too and would race up and snatch whatever toy ds was playing with leading to predictable results.

I understand that the mother would be upset at having her baby scratched and bitten by my ds and I have some sympathy. Unfortunately she is a complete viper and would stand and scream into my face in a totally over the top manner and insist that I and my revolting child be banned from playgroup. I would have probably backed down but she did it to a couple of the other mums too including one lady who did not even speak english . Anyway ds is now reformed although he never backs down from a fight. Her child is still the vacant one in the pushchair that he is too old for wrapped in a comfort blanket with a dummy stuffed in his mouth .

Just a quick update to let you know that I brought DS back to the Soft Play area today. Had a chat with the creche superviser and she has noted the details of the incident, apologised for it happening and left me feeling happier about it.
However poor DS was like a scared rabbit. He wouldnt go into the soft play without me beside him, he froze to the spot each time a child came anywhere near him, and got out of any area where other children were. I knew last week that this had really upset him, but I could have cried today when I saw how much it has shook his world.
Just hoping that in time he will regain his confidence around other children. Will keep going once a week and hope that he gets back to his old self in time.