This afternoon, on my walk to the shop, I came across a group of 15/16/17 year old kids having an argument. It seemed like one of them had just been hit, and he and the one that hit him were hyped up and getting up in eachothers face while the kids round followed them not encouraging but not stopping either.
I was really at a loss with how to deal with the situation, especially as I had 3 kids with me.
In the end my kids waited a little down the path while I approached the group and asked if they were ok and suggested they split away from eachother. They were aggressive to me at all, but the two boys were still getting in each others faces. In the end I walked further down the path, and called the police, while I could watch from a distance. In the end they walked in and I didn’t see any hits. Seemed like it had petered out.
On one hand I felt calling the police was maybe an over reaction, on the other I didn’t want to walk away without doing something to check they would be ok.
If I had not had the children we me I might have tried talk a bit longer rather than calling the police, but I really didn’t fancy getting stuck in the middle of a fight with 3 kids I was responsible for near by.
what have others done in a similar situation. How best to handle these type of situation to keep everyone as safe as possible?
I recall someone on another post mentioning an approach to standing up to inappropriate behaviour before but can’t recall what it was called.