They're cut, I bleed

As a mom, there are times that you want to wrap your kids up and shield them from everything. I know it isn't possible and that at certain ages, life can be cruel. We all make it through, but it is still painful when I hear that one of my kids is having a hard time. Usually, it is Connor that I worry about, but Gavin is making it to an age that kids are beginning to try to be more popular and can be really mean. He has been getting teased a lot due to the fact that he wears glasses. I know I am his mom but I thought he looks really handsome in his glasses. Anyhow, he misses MO and his friends who never teased him. So, 2 days ago, he came home really upset cause the boy right next door that he had started to hang out with had turned on him and was calling him a nerd because he got good grades and wore glasses and he was even nerdier because he had befriended someone who wore glassed too. Then he was called gay cause he didn't have a girlfriend and hadn't kissed anyone. Come on! He is 10 for heaven's sake. Does it really start this early??? Anyhow, I talked to the boy and his mom. He denied it all(why would Gavin make it all up....whatever). The mom still yelled at him and got mad so the kid apologized to Gavin and all was right again. Aren't boys great that way.....if it were girls....I shudder to think of the ugliness that could ensue. Then later that night, his dad came home and he got another round of punishment. I was scared that that may have the opposite affect of making things right. I worried all night and all the next school day, but things are still good between them. I hope it continues. In the meantime, I am ready to go get him contacts before middle school starts next year cause I know it will only get worse. I just wonder if he is too young for them. It is something I need to think on, I suppose. Oh well. I had to laugh though when the father next door was saying that the reason why kids bully each other was because they don't like themselves and were jealous. I don't know if I believe that even as an adult. I just think that some kids haven't been raised right and are down right mean or sometimes kids can get caught up in peer pressure and mob mentality(kinda like Lord Of the Flies) or something stupid like that, but do we really still believe that old adage of jealousy and low self esteem?
On the funnier side of life, I was making some herbal tea for Gavin cause his throat was hurting and we had no medicine for it in the house. I drink my tea like the English do with sugar and cream in it. This is the conversation the took place:
me: do you want cream in it too?
Gavin: what does it look like?
me:(take creamer from fridge and show it to him)
Gavin: Yeah
I finished making it and handed it to him. He takes a sip and says: Cream with sugar....just like I like my women.
HA! I about fell over with laughter at such a random comment. At least he still knows how to make light of things and laugh even when the going gets tough. I wonder where he got that from(sarcasm)?