My 20 month old DS is a very sweet, endearing child but has recently started really pushing other children at the park etc. I know this is normal to some extent, but earlier this week we met another child who he played alongside nicely for a while, then shoved him over. I went over to my DS, got down to his eye level and told him that it was very naughty and that he must be gentle (which is a term he understands). This occurred twice more before I told him that we needed to go home as he wasn't being gentle.
Roll forward to today. We went back to the park and the same little boy was there. Exactly the same happened, but the mum said not to worry and that thy needed to go (not sure if this was just because of DS or not). Five minutes later, another child was laying at the bottom if the slide and DS went over and tatted smacking her. I apologised, took him away and told him that this was very naughty and that he needed to be gentle.
I'm mortified and a complete lost over how to react best to make sure DS knows this unacceptable. At the moment I just want to avoid all situations where this might happen, but I know this isn't a good idea.
Has anyone else had a similar experience and found any strategies which actually stop/ reduce this kind of behaviour?
TIA