[Jon1000]

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the kid should be left to resolve the issue on his own; consider it part of his social development, which imo, is as important as academic development (at that age).

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this was closest to the answer I gave. My thoughts were he's freaking 5 and is also at an all boys school. This pecking order pushing and shoving stuff is going to continue into his teens. It's not like he's in any actual danger. If he figures out not to mouth off to kids who can beat him up, so be it. If he decides it's better to throw a toddler haymaker or two and possibly get one thrown back at him, I'm also ok w/ that. My only reservation is that my cousin seems like he's going to naturally (from a physical and a dispositional standpoint) fall on the lower end of this pecking order, and I don't want that for him. So I also told my aunt that it'll probably just take him a couple of weeks to get used to rough housey play that IMO should be a staple of a young boys development.

I was just asking if anyone else had other responses b/c this is one of the first times an older family member has come to me asking for advice about anything that wasn't directly related to my immaturity, so I wanted some sort of reassurance I didn't [censored] it up.