I tend to avoid conflict but as you have to to ride that bus i would suggest 2 things:
If they say something i would turn round and just stare at one or more of them - obviously only if you feel safe to do so.
Or talk to the bus driver about this 'abuse'. But as you said it could make things worse.
Talking to the bus-driver is definitely out - he's not going to interfere for anything much short of broken bones! (This is a city bus, not a school bus - the driver is in no sense responsible for the kids.)
Stare at them? Maybe. It's hard to gauge; when I was the child, I know from bitter experience that any kind of communication, including eye contact, makes this kind of thing worse - they're trying to get a rise out of you. If it's the child's mother? Not sure. Depends, but I fear they'd think it was funny.
i think your explaination was good. I would refain from why he seems a good target incase of your DS starting to not be himself. 5 is way to young to have to deal with this and IMO the less he knows the better
See, I'm so torn. I guess it's back to the old follow-his-lead. I do, at least, want to make sure he can talk about it with me if he wants to.
The rudeness of some kids is unbelievable!! I would be mortified if one of those 11 year olds was mine!
I expect their mothers would, too. There's something about the pack behaviour of boys this age: I doubt if any one of them singly would have dreamt of being so rude, but once there's a group of them... Well, DS will be that age one day. I hope he'll know better, but we'll see.
