Quandry

I have a quandry. Jack's best friend, Kyle, is a very aggressive little boy. By aggressive, I mean he can be down right mean. He hits, shoves and even bites other kids for no reason at all. It just comes out of the blue. This morning, as I was dropping Jack off at school, I witnessed Kyle come running from across the room and push another little boy (Justin) so hard that Justin fell face forward onto the floor. He started to cry and quite frankly, I would have cried just as hard as Justin, if I had fallen that hard. Kyle's mother, Jennifer, was in the room and all she did was put him in the corner and told him that was not nice and not to do it again.

Kyle was at my house last week and during the two hours that they were here, Jack was in hysterical tears twice because Kyle hit him so hard that left bruises. And again, his mother basically did nothing to stop it. She just sat him down and said that is not nice. No spanking, no nothing. I personally am a fan of spanking if needed. Now mind you, I am not saying beat your kid, but a swat on the butt is needed at times and Jack has had his share of swats. I have found that lately just the threat of a spanking or taking away one of his precious trains is enough to get Jack back into shape. But Kyle's mother does nothing.

So my quandry is this - she wants the boys to get together more this summer after school is out. But truthfully, I am hesitant because every single time they get together, Jack ends up hurt and screaming. But Jack still loves Kyle despite getting hurt by him. He still wants to play with him. So do I let them play together and just sit quietly and not say anything about her bad parenting skills? Or make up excuses not to get the boys together? I really do not know what to do.