Boys - what would you do?

My boys were getting into a fight in a public place, I watched as an adult grabbed the older one by the shirt and said something to him before pushing him away.  I am at a loss if I should have intervened or not.  Here's my take on it:


1.  Sometimes the younger one instigates it and no one sees that - he still has the cuteness factor on his side that makes everyone - including me - over look it.

2.  Yes, the older one is working on self control, and I did tell him to get his brother to do something that his brother DID NOT do.

3.  No, that does not condone him from bullying his brother but - do we use physical force to teach a lesson about physical force?

4.  Don't most brothers fight like that?  Or did I grow up in a different household?

I guess what I am working with here is whether or not I should have stepped in and said something or just let it play out the way I just did.  Here's why I let it play out.

1.  I tell the older one that he needs to learn control maybe someone else embarrassing him into it will make him think twice before his hormones are raging outbreaks.

2.  The younger one needs to see the consequences about his actions - his brother did tell him that I wanted them to do something that he specifically refused to do.  He understood that he brought this one on himself.

3.  I am sure the older one was showing off in front of a friend, and I am glad that this taught him that this doesn't end well.

In the end it had them both crying, which I think is a good thing, both learning lessons that I can tell them over and over again but until someone else says something it really doesn't resonate.   I watched them both apologize to each to each other and then take care of each other like brothers do.  They do love each other - they just annoy the hell out of each other.  

As I always say, "Be lucky that your brother loves you, because you annoy a stranger like that it is going to be much worse that you ever expected."

They learned that today.

Would you have let it play out or would you have stepped in, what do you think?