Had to deal with a little situation tonight...

[jplinville]

Shortly after the kids moved here, my son had an issue with a kid down the street. This kid has tried for months to get my son into a fight with him, each time my son has walked away. He's walked away even in front of his girlfriend, telling her that fighting him wasn't worth the effort of breaking a sweat.

Tonight, my son and some neighborhood friends were out in the street passing football. This kid is on the same football team as my son, and asked if he could join. My son and his friends agreed to let him in, since he's on the team. During the passing, the kid started running his mouth about my son's throwing, and my son showed him what a near perfect spiral looks like. The kid ran up to my son, with fists, and took a swing. My son grabbed his arm, then used his body weight and momentum against him and threw him to the ground. My son told him to knock it off. The kid then jumped up and took another swing at him, at which time my son decided he'd had enough. He put the kid in a head lock, punched him twice in the nose, and let him go and turned to walk away. The kid came back for more by grabbing my son from behind. My son spun around and put the kid in a headlock again, then ran the kids head into the door of his dad's truck.

The entire time, this kids dad is on the porch, egging his kid on and telling him to kick my son's a$$.

After my son was done, he came straight home and told us. I went outside to talk to some of the adults and older teenagers that saw it happen, and they confirmed everything that happened. About 5 minutes later, cops and an ambulance showed up. The ambulance gave the kid an icepack, and the cops wanted to talk to my son. I made my son stand inside the house at the screen door, and tell the cops everything that happened...and the cops interviewed the parents and older teens. They decided to do nothing, since the other kid started it.

Since my son followed my rules, tried to walk away, tried to NOT go physical, didn't swing first, and in the end, won the fight, I have no reason to discipline him. My main concern is that this won't be the end of it. This kids dad was egging it on, telling his son to drop my son, to hit him in the groin, etc.

The cops know of my concern, and told me to call them if I think they are needed. I'll be heading up to have a talk with the kids dad tomorrow...it ought to be an interesting talk. As much as I hate bullies, I already view this father as such. I've dealt with people of his ilk in the past...and it wasn't very pretty. I hope this can be handled like adults, but I doubt this guy knows how to be one.

Tomorrow should be fun.