To make a very long story as short as I can, we just bought a new house and moved in 12-24. My DS is going to be 3 next month and we thought this the perfect house because we are directly across the street from a neighborhood park. The trouble is that there is a kid in the neighborhood who seems to be a bully and never has a parent around. He's confrontational with many of the kids who play at the park and some of them pack their toys and head home at the sight of this kid coming down the street. He looks to be between 8-10 and has virtually no social skills. Tues evening I was in my driveway waiting on my sister to come by. I saw this kid with two other younger boys walking up and down the street with a bag of rocks and a sling shot. They were threatening some other kids from the neighborhood and daring them to come down our street. The oldest boy looked at me and said "We're only doing this because they hurt a puppy." Now who knows if this is true or not? Who cares? It's still not right. So I went into the house and told my husband the story and said I was thinking about calling the police to see if they'd come give the boys a scare. My husband immediately went outside, across the street and tried to get the boy to give up the slingshot. The boy refused but my husband persisted, the boy started running backwards and just as he tripped and started to fall, my husband grabbed him by the arm. I know my husband. He is not a violent man and had no intentions of hurting this kid. He walked the boy home (or so we thought) to talk to his parents. There were no parents home, only a teenager and it turns out it wasn't his house. Wed. evening his mother came to my door to tell me she's filing assault charges against my husband. He knows, of course, that grabbing the boy by the arm was a mistake, but it was a reaction to the fall. No matter, not to the mother. The kid told his mother that my husband grabbed him and threw him to the ground - which he did not do. I witnessed the whole thing. My problem is this, we're new in the neighborhood. I don't want my son to be excluded, ignored or treated badly by other kids in the neighborhood. The boy has been going by our house yelling at my husband, "You're going to jail, You're going to jail". I don't want my son exposed to this behavior either. Should I go talk to my other neighbors and explain our situation?
How do I go back to that park? I feel like my neighbors are going to think we're horrible people. What should I do? Luckily it's been raining so we haven't had to deal with a trip to the park yet. But the weekend is coming and my son LOVES that park and the kids that play there. (Even that same bully who is never even remotely nice to my DS.) How do I explain or DO I explain to my son what is going on? Do I go to the park and talk to people like everything is normal? The mother of this kid has been at the park the last 2 night with him. Something good came of it I guess because now she's paying attention to her kid. HELP!!!!
I am at a total loss and I'm so sad about the whole situation. My husband and I both would like to talk to this kid's mother, but she'll have nothing to do with talking to us. My husband knows he made a mistake and would like to rectify the situation. I knew the instant he touched that kid we were going to be in trouble. He should have just let him fall, I guess. Any suggestions would be helpful. I really don't know where else to turn or who to talk to. I'm sorry this is so long. Thanks for hanging in there!
How do I go back to that park? I feel like my neighbors are going to think we're horrible people. What should I do? Luckily it's been raining so we haven't had to deal with a trip to the park yet. But the weekend is coming and my son LOVES that park and the kids that play there. (Even that same bully who is never even remotely nice to my DS.) How do I explain or DO I explain to my son what is going on? Do I go to the park and talk to people like everything is normal? The mother of this kid has been at the park the last 2 night with him. Something good came of it I guess because now she's paying attention to her kid. HELP!!!!
I am at a total loss and I'm so sad about the whole situation. My husband and I both would like to talk to this kid's mother, but she'll have nothing to do with talking to us. My husband knows he made a mistake and would like to rectify the situation. I knew the instant he touched that kid we were going to be in trouble. He should have just let him fall, I guess. Any suggestions would be helpful. I really don't know where else to turn or who to talk to. I'm sorry this is so long. Thanks for hanging in there!
