3yrs old pushed 2yr old down stairs

[Appleicecream]

My friend dropped off her 2 yr old for me to babysit for the morning and they were perfectly happy.
My son has been quite badly behaved recently. He has been hitting myself and nursery staff when tired. Trying to hit other children at nursery... when he gets tired or frustrated he just becomes very physical.
My friend and I were sitting on the sofa and she put her head round to watch my son and her 2yr old walk up the stairs. My son had previously shown signs of being a bit hitty/pushy he kept saying he wanted the 2yr old to play. They got to the top of the stairs and my son looked at my friend before purposefully pushing her 2 yr old down the entire flight of stairs. Thankfully she was fine apart from a little bit upset.
I was shocked and calmly put him in his room and shut the door as I had no idea what else to do and was too angry to react. He came downstairs after 5 minutes and apologised to his friend and they were fine together afterward.

What on earth do I do?
Is this normal? Should I be worried?

Well it's not abnormal. At 3 he won't understand the danger he put the child in.

However I would never leave my 2 year old to climb stairs with only a 3 year old for company.

Children this small need to be watched at all times.

I think it's normal. I don't think a 3 year old and 2 year old should be playing on the stairs together, sound like a recipe for disaster.

I'm not an EY specialist but I do teach this age group. I would say that it was very unusual behaviour, to deliberately push another child down a whole flight of stairs. No helpful advice I'm afraid, but if I was your friend I would have taken my child away and wouldn't be coming back to your house anytime soon. You must be beside yourself, I hope nursery have some suggestions to help improve his behaviour.

That sounds very very aggressive to me too. Having said that - and I don't mean to offend you op - but what are a 2 &3 year old doing climbing a flight of stairs by themselves and potentially being left to play upstairs by themselves without there being a gate (???) to close behind them. I get that a 3 year old may want a little more independence at that age but the 2year old is far far far too young to just be "supervised" by someone not much older and especially when you know that your ds has been/is aggressive. I think that he should definitely be supervised better from now on. X good luck x

Why were they allowed on the stairs?!

I would be very concerned about your boy's behaviour.

When mine were a bit older than that the oldest threw the youngest off the bunk bed.

She's 13 now and hasn't showed any signs of becoming a serial killer just yet.

There's a big difference between a bunk bed and a flight of stairs.

I wouldn't have let a 2 and 3 year old play upstairs alone tbh

You should have been monitoring him more closely if you know that he's going through an aggressive phase with other children.
What do you do? Don't sit on your arse whilst he's in a potentially dangerous situation with another child. Watch him and be pre-emptive, next time it might be a very nasty outcome.
Is it normal? I'd agree with teacher.
My DS has Aspergers, and when he was younger, I had to helicopter round him a lot of the time because he didn't understand social interactions and was aggressive to others. Over the years, with support, he learned.
I'm not suggesting at all that your child has any additional needs, just that if I'd let mine climb the sitairs with another child and he was annoyed by them, he'd have shoved them too. So I was there to stop that sort of thing, and to talk to him about what he should do.

I don't think ALL three year old's are the same. Mine would never have pushed another child down a staircase but many would....I'm not judging either as "better" or even "normal"

3 is very small and some children of this age have poor impulse control. TOTALLY think they should never have been on the stairs alone.

Pretty normal. They can do some daft things left unsupervised.

I know I should've been behind them, obviously I completely regret that. My friend was watching and they were fine right until it happened. I just never thought he would ever do this!

A 2.5yo boy once pushed my 2yo boy down the stairs. I put it down as "within normal". Sorry about your stress.

I'll get flamed for saying this. Ime, 2-3yo boys are especially impulsive and physical in their impulsiveness. I think there's a physiological drive in most boys towards trying to establish physical dominance, especially towards other boys, and this is about the age when that brain bias in boys emerges.

It's ok OP...it's certainly not "unusually aggressive" as one poster said.

3 year olds do stupid shit....they fall in dog crap, they inhale buttons, they wander into deep water and sometimes they push one another over. Unfortunately this was at the top of the stairs. No damage no harm.

Time outs apparently don't work, they certainly never have for me. I'd have taken his favourite toy away for the rest of the day and kept them in separate rooms while the 2 year old was there. DS is still aggressive to his 8 year old DSis when he's overtired, he's 4.

Thank you very much, a mixed bag of opinion but I appreciate it. ragged that's interesting, if this your opinion or is there research behind this?

Ragged - you do know that's total rubbish don't you? A girl can equally become like that. I have two boys and majority of their friends are boys and none have become more physical at a certain age. I haven't seen any of them push for dominance either and we have always taught them everyone is equal and therefore they shouldn't be dominant over others as a child

Ragged - bullshit. some boys are aggressive just as some girls are 'bossy'.

My ds is 3 and is a very gentle, kind boy. Kisses and cuddles everything. Lots of empathy. He would never intentionally hurt anyone unless they hit him first.

Op - I would sit down with your son and explain why what he did was wrong - how it would hurt the girl. Put him in her shoes. Empathy needs to be taught. Look up The Danish Way book and FB for good tips on this.

I agree about it not being a "boy" trait. What an awful society we live in where one sex is lumbered with the label of naturally sometimes violent.

Nope!

It's as bad as saying being "bitchy" is a natural girl trait.

Each of my older 3 Dc pushed the next youngest sibling down the stairs (from halfway) at about 3 yo. Eldest is a girl. They don't understand the consequences of their actions and it's just an impulse.
They are in their 20s now, and haven't done it since

Goat so on the one hand you say "boys particularly can be full on" but then you say "They piss on their territory but both genders do."

Which is it? It's bullshit anyway. Gender defining to make children's weirdness somehow more explicable is bullshit.

Don't worry too much. It's just one incident after all and the fact you didn't think he'd be capable of it shows that it is the far end of his aggression spectrum. Three year olds aren't known for their fantastic grasp of cause and effect, and he did apologise after, some wouldn't.
I saw my DS's friend bash a tadpole to death that he'd just caught. It seriously disturbed me, but really I don't think he had a clue that a tadpole could feel pain or die, it was just an experiment to him. DS was freaked out though! You just have to watch them like mad, as they do give you this false sense of security at three since their vocabulary is so developed. I think it's easy to overestimate their empathy.