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What to do if your child is being bullied?
Bullying among children is an intentional aggressive behavior quite commonly found in children. It is oftentimes the physically stronger child that bullies the timid or weaker child.
Bullying assumes many different forms -such as physical assault, verbal teasing or name-calling, intimidation using menacing gestures or social isolation and even sending obscene or offending messages through mobile phone and/or e-mail
If your child is bullied, it can have undesirable consequences. Children who are bullied will lose self-belief, feel depressed, seek loneliness, abstain from classes, neglect studies and feign sickness. There are also child victims of bullying attempting suicide.
The biggest cause for worry is the children being bullied seldom tell their parents about it because they are embarrassed, ashamed or even frightened. But notwithstanding this fact, your child needs your help and intervention to stop being bullied.
You will have to take steps clandestinely to find out if your child is being bullied. One of the ways is to monitor your child’s cell phone activities through mobile spy software. This will enable you to know all about the incoming and outgoing calls made or received by your son as also the text messages sent/received.
Try to gather as much information as possible from your child about bullying. Do not blame or assume that your child did something wrong to provoke others into bullying. Please know some physically stronger children will bully your child even without any valid reasons. Your child needs sympathy and tons of it.
Learn from your child as much as you can about the bullying tactics of his seniors or peers and ascertain when and where the bullying took place. It will be further helpful if your child names the other children or adults who may have witnessed the bullying?
Do not educate him to physically retaliate as it can lead a violent solution. Hitting back the bullying person is unlikely to solve the problem and it will only further worsen the situation. Your child’s counter offensive will lead to suspension or expulsion from school.
Although it is difficult, a parent is wise to step back and consider the alternate steps carefully. The parents are often reluctant to report bullying to school officials, but bullying has to be reported to the school staff.
Inform about your child’s experience of being bullied to the school authorities. Express your wish to work with the school staff at school to find a solution to end the obnoxious bullying for the sake of your child as well as other children. Do not directly confront the parents of the children who bullied your child. This is better left to the school authorities.
Before reporting the matter, discreetly find out what the school’s policy is about bullying incidents and children safety. Do not rush to the school in a fit of anger and demand action. Your goal must be to get the problem solved, rather than seeking revenge.
Home is indeed the place for your child to seek solace and refuge. Extend your child parental love, care and emotional support. Interact freely with your child so that he/she will be more forthcoming with facts. It may be worthwhile to teach your child defense strategies and instill confidence in him or her.
