In need of advice...

Last night I had a bit of a shock and it has created some questions in my mommy brain.

My sons were mildly assaulted by a bully. Neither of them suffered any long term effects but it brought out the "momma bear" in me and that is always terrifying for anyone and everyone concerned. It also made me start to question my mommy abilities and decisions with my sons.

Lets face it, as an only child who has, up until this time, only dealt with teenage girls, my mommy skills with boys leave more than a little to be desired. Being a single parent to try and muddle through the boy thing makes it even more difficult. I did things differently with my boys than I did with my girls. I taught my girls, from a very young age, self defense. They used those skills. I never thought my boys would need them.

Should I be teaching my boys self defense? How? What? When?

And then there is the fact that it seems this boy was picking on my boys to impress two young ladies that were with him. I think they nearly wet their pants when I came screaming (almost literally) across a field at them and demanded to know why teenagers needed to beat on an 8-year-old. The girls insisted that they had never hit Thom, which my boys verified, but they didn't mention that the only young man with them had hit Thom and kicked Malachi.

At 0130 I woke up worrying about what I should have or could have done for my boys.

And as I'm reviewing it, something hit me square between the eyes. If these girls at 12 and 13 are willing to overlook bullying of a younger child, what are they setting themselves up for? And I was suddenly scared FOR them.

I would have taken anyone down I could who beat up on little kids when I was that age. What is happening that these little girls were willing to cover for this young man who openly punched an 8-year-old? And how are they going to justify it in their minds when he is hitting one of them or one of their friends?

Do I talk to these girls? To their parents? What would I want another child's parent to do if they were in my position? I don't want to offend anyone or create any problems.

My story isn't pretty, that's a fact. The pictures are proof. Do I show these little girls what could happen? Not that it ever will. Perhaps they will lived a blessed and charmed life and be like the people that laugh when I tell them my husband punched me in the face because it is so far from their reality they can't believe it's true. Then again, perhaps nobody will ever tell them that bullying isn't right, they can stand up to a bully, they can't find bullying behaviors acceptable. And, perhaps, they will find themselves walking in shoes too similar to mine.

What do I do? Do I have it in my power to make a change for the good? Or would it be too much information? Would it do more harm than good to shove my reality in the faces of these girls?

I have some really rough decisions to make. I'm walking uncharted territory for me. I'm doing the best I can. I want to do what's best for them - the next generation.

Have any suggestions?