DS is almost 8 and we live on a cul de sac with a green on which all the kids play. There are two boys (one DS's age, one a few years older) who have recently starting ganging up on and picking on DS. This has been verbal and physical.
DS is a chilled out, gentle kid who gets on with everyone. He's a bit different to a lot of the kids round here (i.e. not rough) which is why I think he's become their target.
I've been monitoring the situation from afar and have seen multiple instances of them picking on him for no reason. We're working on DS's resilience and he's making great progress but this isn't the kind of thing where I can just tell him to ignore or shrug off. They're kicking him, pushing him over, calling him a rat and a f**got, telling him his mum is a whore - and that's just this weekend.
I've gone to both sets of parents and explained as calmly as I could what was going on. One set of parents admitted they let their kid (the 7 year old) out and then don't check on him - their house doesn't overlook the green, seemed to be disappointed at his behaviour and assured me they'd sort it. The other parents refused to believe their DS was to blame and gave me similar abuse to what their kid has said to DS.
I don't want to keep DS in (especially with summer hols coming up) as that just seems so unfair to him. I keep encouraging him to play with the other, nicer kids but those kids involve the nasty two in the play so in order to avoid them DS would need to either play on his own or come in.
We don't have a proper garden where he can play safely, just a small yard at front.
EXH is coming round tomorrow morning and says he'll try speaking to the parents again. I don't know if there's any point as I genuinely don't think these people care that their kids are behaving in this way. He thinks it's worth a try.
Has anyone experienced similar? Any advice welcome 🙏.
I would never ever act on it of course but I am fantasising about having the chance for a quiet word with the pair of them 😤