I feel your pain about the bad friends I had a really bad, selfish demanding friend once. I think your not neccessarily doing something wrong. What may be happening is that the bad abusive friend of yours may see you as nice or having gentle none abrasive personality. And that can attract bad people because of one person being nice the bad people look at nice people who might not speak up and just take crap. But if you notice bad treatment address it immediateely and privately. Take the person aside and say something like "when you said __ it hurt my feeling" if they get a nasty attitude or laugh it off then they are not true friends. friends don`t act like that period. end of story. don`t be a doormat. take steps to speak up for yourself and your son. teach him to fight back also with using intelligent words and if someone hits him he needs to defend himself. Becoming assertive and speaking up for yourself is a process. I gradually learned to do it because not everyone plays nice or fair and you have to be ready to fight for your own rights and needs. good luck