So my son was outside on the front porch playing with 3 of his friends, who are all his age, when I hear a deeper, older-sounding voice say something that I couldn’t quite make out. What did I do then? I turned down the movie I was watching on HBO and I listened. Yes, I eavesdropped on my child. Does this make me a bad parent? Anyway, I listened for awhile until I was certain there were at least 2 older boys on my front porch trying to “hang out” with my 8 year old son and his 3 little friends. This kind of thing strikes me as odd. Why would boys the age of 14 or 15 want to hang around little kids? I can only think of a few reasons and none of them are good. I’ve heard too many strange stories and I’m not about to let my little boy be corrupted by a bunch of teenagers who could be teaching him God only knows what. So I opened up the front door and told these boys to go away. They looked at me stupid for a minute and one of them said something along the lines of “We are just talking to our friends.” To which I replied “Excuse me, what? These kids are all 8 years old or under. If you are hanging out with 8 year olds, then you must feel pretty pathetic.” Score. They got up and left. I had a similar problem once before but it was some 12 year olds knocking on the door asking if Eric could “come outside and play”. He was only 7 then. Needless to say I sent those kids on their merry way as well.