Today we were at a farm that had a park in it. DS2 (4) loves parks, so we spent most of the day there while his brothers looked at animals. There was a twisted enclosed slide (like a supertube) and DS2 hates going down these, but he was happily sitting at the top, waiting for other children to get ready to go down, and then giving them a push to get them going. Most of the children were fine with this, thought it was fun. I was supervising him the whole time, so the children who didn't want him to do it, I told him not to, and he was fine with that.
This one boy (maybe 5/6ish) allowed him to do it, but either DS2 pushed him awkwardly or the little boy came out the other end too fast and ended up a crumpled heap on the floor. Obviously he went crying to his mam, saying "it was that boy there who did it" and pointing at DS2. I felt awful at this point, had to coax DS2 down, which took a good 5 minutes, with the other child still crying right next to me, sobbing and pointing "it was him, it was him". When I eventually got him down, I apologised to the mam, and explained what DS2 was doing and said that her son had come out at the bottom and onto the hard park floor.
I hate having to do this, find I get so flabergasted and red, near tears, and probably made that poor lady feel quite uncomfortable. Short of saying "he has autism, he doesn't quite play the same as other kids" what else is there to do? I'm just waiting for that one parent to tell me that he shouldn't be allowed to play in a park if that is the way he is.