My Son and a Neighbor Boy Can't Get Along

My daughter got stabbed in the hand with scissors last year in Kindergarten and I've NEVER brought myself to forgive the brat that deliberately did it, and asked the teacher that my daughter not come anywhere near the brat which the teacher gladly did. Then the teacher actually suggested we have the girls seperated in different classrooms for first grade and things have been great ever since.

Some kids out there just have mean streaks or issues and in today's society noone will straighten them out so they continually get away hurting other's and never learn.

Keep your son away from him he'll just pick on your son or be a bad influence and change your sweet boy.

I've had another problem with a neighbor girl being really nice and a good friend to my daughter one minute and then ditching my daughter for another friend and really hurting my daughter's feelings repeatedly so I talked with my daughter and we had a talk about "true-real" friends and my daughter decided she didn't need her around anymore.

If you are unable to just tell the other mother that you aren't comfortable forcing a relationship between kids who obviously dont want to be pals you could say that you are sorry your son is provoking her child. Let that family know that as soon as your son's behavior issues are under wraps you can revisit the idea of the kids forming a bond. Who cares if it's true or not. It's an easy way for you to keep your son out of the mix and let that family figure out who the real trouble maker is when he moves on to a new target. Good luck!

I wouldn't let my child play with the other kid. If his Mom has a problem with that I would just ask her how many of her friends hit and kick her and how long she would put up with it. It amazes me how some parents think that kids should put up with way more than we would put up with ourselves.
He'll find a new friend and maybe this kid will learn a lesson. I'm sure the Mom wants her son to hang out with yours because he's a good influence on him.
Good luck,
J.
Mom to 4, soon to be 5 through another adoption.

This could have been written by myself 6 months ago. My son will be turning 7 in a couple of months. There is also a "wild" boy who lives just a couple of doors down from us who we have had issues with. The first few times I thought boys will be boys, but it continued to get worse and worse. My son thought this boy was great, but would come home crying as this boy was both physically aggressive and verbally cruel. I finally had enough when the mom told me that my son was too aggressive with her son!!! I unlike her actually watched our kids play and I had to repeatedly tell her son to stop hitting, kicking and taunting everyone. I told her that my son needs time out from her son as they just could not get along. She was floored that I would do that and that was it.

It has now been 3 months and my son has never been happier with the new friends he now has time for. Long story short protect your sweet boy and keep him away from the "naughty" kids. You will not regret it.

I've had a somewhat similar experience and although I appear to be in the minority here, I think it is really hard to force two boys to stay away from each other, depending on how far apart you live, the frequency of contact, etc. In my situation the other boy lived only two doors away. However, if the other boy is physically hurting your son at school or on the bus that is unacceptable and the teachers and/or bus driver need to be aware of the situation and should be handling that. It sounds like your son doesn't really want to play with the other boy anyhow so rather than prohibiting them from being together you could just politely decline any invitations from the other boy until they get the message and stop trying. I would tell the mom that your son would just rather not play with her son right now or that he already has other plans. In my case I didn't allow my son to go to the other boy's house because I was concerned about his safety with the other child, but my son did still want to have contact with the boy so I allowed the other boy to come here where I could supervise. The situation has since improved. I wouldn't respond to her blaming your son because it sounds like she's not going to believe anything you say and is just going to get argumentative and defensive. If most of the problems are on the bus and you fear for your son's safety you definitely need to talk to the teacher and/or the transportation people if you haven't already done so. On our bus kids who repeatedly cause problems or hurt other kids are required to sit in the front seat right behind the bus driver where they can be monitored. All children have a right to be safe on the bus. I hope it works out--I do empathize with the situation.

We had a similar problem in our neighborhood. There were 3 boys. The two got along great, but the 3rd was a trouble maker and his mother insisted that they all play together. We struggled with it for several years and finally just broke it off. The one just didn't have the same personality as the other two and they were constantly fighting. As they got older the fights got more violent. I had to actually tell the mother that it just wasn't worth the fights to try to get them to play together. It was difficult because we had become friends, but it just wasn't worth the battles when there were other kids to play with. Good Luck! L.