Free Range, Mean Girls, and Mom worries

ug who thought their was so much going on when your child turned 6.  Today B was aloud to go farther than just our street, he went by himself to the cul-d-sac behind us.  My goal is to really be more free range than not.  (if you don't know what free range is google it.. Hint:  remember the mom who got so much flack for letting her 9 year old, i think, ride the subway home.  I thought I was doing well with just letting him go down the street, but apparently that isn't really good enough when you are trying to keep up with the other kids in the neighborhood.  So today he went around the block, kind of.  Well actually he went farther, and was then informed that he wasn't aloud to go down the other street that far.

Girls:  I AM SO GLAD I DON'T HAVE GIRLS!!!  B and E play frequently with a little neighborhood girl, L, and her sister.  Both of these girls are  older than B.  L is 7 and her sister is 10 or so.  They frequently play with my boys, they have had some issues with other neighborhood kids.  This is fine, they have always been very nice.  Well today, the neighborhood girl whom they had problems with and a new neighbor was over at their house.  I had encouraged B to go play, He kind of stood back (shy boy) and then went for it.. they started screatching about getting away from B and started to ride off on their bikes he ran after them (b's bike has a flat tire and is grounded)  I hollared at B to come back, that appartently the girls didn't want to play.  (I really was thinking of Banning L from my house, why is it ok to play with my child, when no one else will play with you, but then to ostrigize him when the bully girls will play with you.  Well eventually b started running around (i thought they where kind of including him) he was following the new neighborhoood Girl as she rode her bike, she and J (who i have always thought was a MEAN girl) decided to try to go down Koch lane so he wouldn't follow them, or i guess thinking he wouldn't, who knows what they thought (they are under 10)  B did follow them, and S went after him (i was worried when I didn't see him come right back) .  By the way,  J when b was younger(around 2), would come over and play usually with another neighborhood girl they where about 4, even back then b was a monster and they would run from him...

who knew their is so much stuff to worry about.  school, friends, and the list just goes on and on.

now if anyone has any advice how to deal with some mean neighborhood girls, please let me know?

S thinks he just needs to figure out not to hang out with people who don't respect you..how do you teach that to a 6 year old?

p.s. i think i am more upset about this than B, after all he is a boy.