As summer vacation is coming to an end for many of us, we want to start off the new school year right with a great attitude and positive thinking. Our children will be making lots of new friends and reuniting with old as they continue their learning; whether it’s in school or through extracurricular activities.
Unfortunately for many children across the United States, interactions with peers may not always be so pleasant. According to the National Bullying Prevention Center, “more than one out of every five (20.8%) students report that they are being bullied.”
Bullying can include consistent verbal language to make someone feel bad such as calling someone a name. It can also be consistent physical harm such as hitting and pushing. If a child is made to feel bad about who they are, what they look like or any repeated behavior happening to them that is unkind where they are targeted, they are being bullied. And if your child is the target of someone’s mean behavior, you likely don’t feel good about it either.
So what can you do? Here a few suggestions:
- Talk to your child. Get the whole scoop on what’s happening. Discuss how they feel, all of the instances where they feel that they are being bullied and what they’ve done to try and stop it. Have they asked the bully to stop? Did they notify a teacher or an adult? This is good for you to know exactly what’s going on so you can get a better idea of how to handle it. Use this time to stress to your child that you love them and you are here for them. They need that reassurance.
- Talk to your child’s teacher. See if he/she is aware of what’s going on in the classroom. Working together can help you both identify the problem and then come up with a solution. Perhaps offering an activity on the importance of being kind to everyone and helping people with positive words as opposed to the negative can be helpful for the entire class.
- Talk to the administrative team. Sometimes, the teacher route may not be as effective. If it is a reoccurring problem that makes your child visually upset, it can be concerning if the teacher did nothing about it. Or perhaps they did address the issue but it is still happening. If that is the case, it may be helpful to talk with a principal or administrative staff that represents the students and the school. Together you may be able to come up with an action plan.
- Connect with outside sources. Sometimes there are local initiatives in the community completely dedicated to combating bullying. They may host programs for children or offer ways to handle it.
- Read some books. There are lots of books on the topic of bullying that can help you with ideas as well as give your child some strategies to help stop it. A fun start is by learning about our Bamzy Baby character, Big Biscuit, an overeating and mean spirited friend is a great source in learning about conflict resolution and understanding that bullying can happen to anyone.
With these tools, you’re likely off to a great start in getting some help for your child. It’s never too early to be proactive in the protection of our children.
Has your child ever dealt with being bullied? How did you handle it? Send us a comment!