The Pusher

For the record, my son isn't a permanent "pusher," it's just a phase he's going through...please don't label him, I need your playdates. You all know the kid. The biter or the hairpuller of the group. He or she bullies the other kids and then gets forever blacklisted from the playdate black books of the world. I remember being at the park when Jam was still pretty little, and this little girl, "N," pulled his hair for no apparent reason. I've got to admit, I looked at her mother and thought "how could you let your daughter do that?" I remember talking with a girlfriend about "N" and we both agreed that we didn't want our little ones to play with her lest she be a bad influence on them. Now I realize how cruel I was to this poor mother...because now my son has a label, "the pusher." It could be that he was a late talker, and so the words are not where his brain would like them to be. When he can't verbalize (I'm hypothosizing folks..), he resorts to an all out shove. It's getting to be too much. I've tried rewarding him when he doesn't push, and we've talked a lot about how it doesn't feel very nice to get pushed. Nothing has helped, today he pushed three older girls and a little boy, all unprovoked. The little boy's dad told him he should push back. I don't know if that's such a good idea...but, I digress. Now, you may be thinking "what a bad mother," but I'm on it. I've disciplined him each time, and we cut our park day out early when the pushing continued after sitting on the bench proved fruitless. He's still pushing and I'm at wits end, cuz now I'm on the blacklist.