I hope it's okay to post this here.
I (33M) took my son to the park yesterday, he's 5. He was playing at the top of a slide/deck area and there were some other kids up there. I called him down when it was time to go and as we were leaving he said "those boys were mean to me" to which I told him not to worry about it.
When we got in the car he said "those boys said 'we'll kill you',". At this point I realised the extent of it and they'd also called him other nasty names. My son was scared and I had to reassure him several times that they couldn't hurt him. These boys would have been 8-10 at a guess.
The uprising in teenage stabbings in Australia has me scared. It's on the news every week, often at malls or train stations. This insane culture of kids thinking they're cool and tough with huge "fuck yeah" factor by being violent is out of hand and the punishment is very small relatively, which needs to change. There needs to be a flat minimum sentence of at least 25 years for committing a murder, no exceptions.
These boys who told my son they'd kill him could very well be the type who are going to start carrying picket knives in a few years.
The thing is too, the parents of these kids are probably none the wiser. They probably act sweet and innocent and it isn't until they're alone with smaller, younger kids that their nasty persona comes out. They probably see the stabbings on the news and privately think "fuck yeah, I wanna stab someone and it'll make me really cool".
What do we do about such bullies? What words and punishments should be put in place with such kids before they commit violent crimes?
An actual strike of fear would pull them in line real quick. A night in some sort of lockup for even making a threat, whether it's meant or not. Something that can change the course of the "I'm a fully hectic gangsta" path they're wanting to go down and a realisation that there's consequences (though currently, not really).
But given that's never going to happen, how do we protect our kids?
How do we teach them that it's not a perfect world and that there are dangerous people without destroying their sweet innocence?
What tools can I equip my son with for situations where he's being threatened and feels unsafe?
I'd like him to be able to have independence in his teenage years with enough awareness to avoid these situations and I'll figure out how to deal with my own paranoia along the way.