Son upset at playgroup

[fizzle8]

I take my son (aged almost 3) to playgroup every week. It’s a busy group with lots of good toys, but every time we go he will get upset by another child.

This week it was another boy who kept trying to push and snatch toys off him, and last week another child came over a few times and pushed over a Duplo tower he was building.

My son is quiet and sensitive and mostly enjoys the group. He will play happily on his own or with other kids like him, but gets upset and cries with situations occur like the ones above.

When it happens I struggle to know what to say to help him, other than “never mind, lets build the tower again” or “let’s play with something else”. What is the best way to deal with this?

What you're already doing.

The other children's behaviour at that age is perfectly normal as they learn about their world and boundaries. Their accompanying adult should be stepping in and helping them to learn that by telling them not to do it, but my hazy recollection of the horror that is playgroups tells me it rarely happens. It's like bare Knuckle fighting but with more passive aggressive staring going on.

Thanks for the response. I’m just concerned that it’s going to make him wary of other kids. He’s not hugely confident and I don’t want these experiences to make him less so!

It is upsetting for your son but it's also important he experiences these behaviours rather than be shielded from them. My daughter was the same she was so quiet and would sit back and watch everyone. When everyone would dive in and get the toys she would wait until she could see what was left over. It really worried me. But when she started foundation she was much more settled and quietly confident.

But like another poster said really parents should be watching their children to try and stop them destroying other children's creations ect