My son, 7, was outside playing football with friends. I saw him get deliberately pushed down a few times and the other boy (same age) put a hand out to pull him up then pull it away when my son went to take it. This type of thing has happened a few times that I’ve noticed but it doesn’t seem to bother my son, so I’ve just ignored it until now. Today, it happened and another boy picked up on the cues and joined in pushing my son. My son started pushing back but ended up on the ground. At that point I went out and gave all three a row saying fighting is not acceptable and brought my own son in. My husband says I was in the wrong and should have left him to sort it out himself and will have made things worse, but I didn’t want any of them to get hurt. Where do I go from here? I want him to play and have friends, but don’t want them pushing him around. I just feel sad about it and don’t know how to advise him to handle the situation.