4 year old and what to expect from them

Not sure what to do…..

My 4.5 year old says things that aren’t nice and I’m not sure how to handle it. He prefers my parents over DH’s (although he loves DH’s parents and has lots of fun with them) and sometimes….usually when he is tired or crabby because of something else he says things that hurt their feelings and will say them in front of them. For example, he will say he doesn’t like them or he doesn’t want them there he wants mama and pa (my parents) or he wants them to go home or he will refer to them as the old grandma and grandpa…I’m drawing a blank on what else he says at the moment and it isn’t only with them, but these examples are fresh in my mind. I know this isn’t meant to be mean and that he is just expressing his feelings, but how do I teach him that these things are hurtful to people and if he has been told once, twice, 3 times what is the next step? At 4.5 he is old enough to understand isn’t he? Or no?

Re: 4 year old and what to expect from them

Can you maybe refer back to a time where one of his friends said something not so nice to him? Ask him to remember how that felt and ask him why he would want to make someone else feel badly. Other then that I don't know what to suggest because we deal with stuff like that over here too.