A few days ago my husband shared a story with me about a girl who has been bullied at school for the last three years. For three years this girl was horribly mistreated by girls in her own grade, I am not allowed to say anything further as the case is still being investigated.
My heart right now is so saddened that this is our reality at schools and I would like to be a part of creating awareness and making this 'bullying' stop. This will be the first of a few posts where I will be addressing the topic of 'bullying' especially in schools.
So what is bullying? Bullying is an aggressive behavior amongst school children. Often the behaviour is repeated.
Bullying includes the following:
- threatening
- teasing
- name calling
-hurting someone
- excluding them from a group on purpose
- humiliating someone infront ofpeers
Where does Bullying happens?
- it happens at school
-in the playground
- on school outings
- on the way to school
- on the toilets
- on the phone or the Internet
- in classrooms
How does it feel to be Bullied?
-bullying is hurtful
- children who are bullied feel unhappy,frightened and lonely
- children that are bullied has a low self esteem
- children that are bullied feel worthless
- they feel unimportant
What do you do when you are being bullied?
- you need to tell a teacher or an adult who will listen to you and help will you
- you need to tell your mother or someone in your family
- share your story with a friend you trust
-Ask them (adult/teacher )to help you work out what to do
-if you are bullied over the phone via text or internet keep the messages and show an adult
A child who is a victim of bullying will stay quiet about the bullying because he/she is afraid that if they say something it will get worse. As a parent we have to create an environment at home that makes our children feel comfortable to share struggles especially in the case of bullying.
We must be emotionally available for our children and not too preoccupied with other stuff but make an effort to connect with our children on a daily basis no matter how busy we are. Let's face it life is always busy everyone is busy however we owe it to our children to make sure they are emotionally healthy that requires us as parents to check in with them daily.
Ask your child:
How was your day?
Did something exciting happen today?
Is there anything you are struggling with?
Wait for a response and listen to understand , don't listen to respond.
Stay tuned for the next blog where I will go in depth with the signs to be aware of to pick up if your child is being bullied.
You can also check out the Vlog of Lee-the-Bean where she addresses the same topic and give parents tips on how to handle this issue of 'bullying'
#BullyingMustFall
#SayNoToBullying
#StopBullyinginSchools
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