Prepubescent Boys' Behavior a Concern

R.,
This is just my opinion... I think you handled it pretty good, I think I would have called all the boys over first of all and asked them... of course you know you weren't going to get the truth the first time... Kids know a lot more than we want to give the credit for and if we want to be naive and think "my kid wouldn't do that, then we enable a LARGER problem down the road." I would have embarrassed them a bit so that they wouldn't try to do anything like that again in your yard, and hopefully no where else. I might even give a little talk about respecting girls in general to all of them. I would call the parents and let them know. I sure would want to know if I was a parent of one of the boys. Now the girls parents might be a little upset, but I would still call and let them know. We are the adult, and I think we send a bad message to the kids when we "cover-up" things because we don't want to make any waves or have people mad at us. We have to do the right thing. How would you really feel if you found out the boys did it to another girl and you get a call from that girls parent knowing they tried to do it in your back yard... Would you say, yeah, I saw them corner a girl in my yard a few weeks ago.
As far as talking with the other parents, be honest, tell them what you saw that you talked with your son and so did his father. Let the parents know that you like it when the boys are over and playing and that you do watch them. That you don't have a problem with them, you know they are boys and may be a little curious... Let the parents know that nothing happened... You aren't blaming any of the boys, you understand they are boys...the other parents may have a sit down with their boys and talk about respecting girls too.
I hope I didn't offend you in any way, this is my opinion, and if my son did this, I would want to know, I surely would hate to find out later on or find out worse that he did this before and no one told me. I would appreciate my neighbors for letting me know.

First, I want to commend you on stepping in. I taught Middle School for many years and the children need MUCH guidance when it comes to all the "sex" stuff. Their bodies (especially boys) are starting to do things and their thoughts tend to "go there" all the time. I think they say a boy/man thinks about sex every few seconds.

Please continue to instill good values as it WILL make a difference. You can't control other people's children, but you can make a HUGE difference in yours and then, your child can be a positive influence on others.

As for calling the other boy's and/or girl's parents, I'm not quite sure that would be a wise choice. You never know how people are going to react and this girl's parents could come back at you with the "authorities".

Just my two cents.

Kudos to you for acting on your instincts and dealing with this quickly. Puberty is occuring 2+ years earlier than it did when we were kids, and it can't be easy for either sex to deal with what's going on in their brains/bodies. That said, the kids need to learn proper behavior with the opposite sex and what they were doing, even if it was just for a kiss, wasn't proper. I think talking to the other boys parents is the right idea - they need to deal with it and talk to their boys about proper behavior, not just birds/bees. And they can pay attention so that they can stop things from getting out of hand if the behavior is a warning sign of something more.

Take care! :)