"Not my fault always being the biggest and the strongest"

I would have used this quote to make Trevor feel better about his situation at this point in his life, however, this is Fezzik's line (the giant) in "Princess Bride" and his favorite character is Inigo Montoya. But I had to have a similar conversation with him about his interaction with his friends. On Monday, we spent a few minutes on the playground outside of the preschool after school. Trevor was playing with his friends and knocked into a friend who knocked into a younger kid that almost completely fell off of the playground. Trevor's movement to his friend was intentional. He was getting frustrated and he acted out. So we left the playground and I had a talk with him about how he cannot lay a hand on someone else, especially not to push, punch, or knock over that person. He is always quick to say, "But so-and-so does it". And my response is that I don't care about what other kids are doing. I care about what he does. He needs to conduct himself in a kind manner.

Then on Tuesday, he had two of his preschool friends over to play, and they had a blast. Two other boys that really didn't stop running around for a good 2+ hours.

Then I told Trevor on Wednesday that he had one last chance to try to behave with the kids after preschool and if he couldn't we would go back after school again. I kept my eye on the kids for most of the time and saw that they loved to play games that made them run around. We tried tag for a while, but it usually reverted back to everyone ganging up on Trevor and trying to pull him around to "arrest" him or something. I could see on his face if he glanced at me that he wanted to say "SEE? I'm not trying to do anything to these people." I heard him say that he was trying to walk away a time or two that this happened. Thankfully, no one was ever hurt, and the kids that were chasing him and grabbed him knew what they were getting into.

I talked to him afterwards and said that I was very proud that he didn't try to hurt any of his friends. And that because he was the tallest and the strongest of his friends, he had to be very very careful that what he was doing wasn't going to throw them to the ground. He did seem to enjoy the fact that he must be so strong and have lots of muscles to be able to be the strongest.

I was very quick to say that when he goes to school in September there are going to be kids that are 11 years old and that he will not be the biggest in the school. He seemed to think that he still would be bigger than 11 year-olds, but that goes along with his development (from what I know anyway). Because they are so independent, he doesn't understand the concept of kids at school being bigger than him. He only knows that he'll be going to Kindergarten soon, and that he'll still be with kids his age.

Anyway....I'm just glad he understands that he needs to treat other kids nicely, regardless of what they are doing to him. It has been a work in process.