How Siblings can help overcome the effects of bullying? Can they? Yes they can. Is your child being bullied and you are clueless how to help him? Believe me, I’ve been there and it is frustrating as a parent. One of the things I found that helped my child ease through the effects of bullying was his sister’s love. Don’t underestimate how a sibling can help a child deal with bullying situations.
How Siblings Can Help Overcome (Reduce) the Effects of Bullying
Sibling love is unconditional
My daughter is 6 years younger than her brother and she is in total admiration of him. As soon as she sees her brother, she hugs him and covers him with kisses. A bullied child needs all the love and attention he can get. At first my son did not like this demonstration of affection but now he is used to it and looks forward to it (even if he does not say so). One of the effects of bullying on my son was a lack of emotions. He did not want to show any emotions on his face to avoid being teased. Sometimes I thought I was talking to a wall. Those affectionate gestures by my daughter helped him overcome the bullying effects. Of course I hugged him too, but he needed someone other than his mother or his father to show him unconditional love.
Get them to play together
One of the effects of bullying is isolation and a lack of friends. Get the siblings to play together to reduce that effect. Now, my kids are 6 years apart. It was hard to find activities they can do together but I found some. They can play Monopoly together, for instance. I was the moderator but they are still playing together. They can watch their favourite shows together. They can listen to music together.
Get the bullied child to help his sister or brother
Another effect of bullying is negative self esteem. My son’s self esteem was hit hard. He felt he needed approval for every action or word he said. “Mom, is it right? Mom I think I cannot do it.” It was painful. Since he is older than his sister, I gave him tasks to help her with little things: teach her how to use her scooter, help her with her writing assignments, and help her with math skills. He felt useful, it helped him with his self esteem and my daughter was ecstatic because her older brother was helping her.
Teach the sibling how to stand up for his bullied brother or sister
This is a powerful tool that can help reduce the effects of bullying. I remember one day, my daughter’s friend called my son weird. My daughter’s answer was the following: “He is not weird. He is just calm and he is the nicest brother ever.” It warmed my heart and put a smile on my son’s face. I was so proud of her! So teach the sibling to stand up for his brother or sister when he notices a verbal bullying situation. It will ease the effects of bullying.
These are just a few ways my daughter helped ease the effects of bullying on my son. Never underestimate the power of a sibling!
Learn more about how to overcome the effects of bullying in our stop bullying tips!
How has your child’s sibling helped ease the effects of bullying?
As a family, it is so important to support those that are down. My children are very close and my husband and I try to encourage them to look out for one another and show one another caring and compassion.
This is so true because when my sister and I were in middle school I jumped in to save here. Yes it may not have been the way to handle it but I had to think fast, no adults were around either. This big girl started punching my sister so I hit her in the face to stun her and ran to the office to get the principle. I stud the girl enough to get to the office and back before blood was shed by my sister was was all about 80 lbs at that time. Yes we did get suspended but at least no one ever tried fighting with either of us after that and no one was really hurt. The three of us became friends after that too. This girl everyone was afraid of until we all went to high school.
I had one sibling and she helped a lot. Unfortunately, my daughter is an only child.
Growing up with 5 siblings a year apart each I never dealt with bullying because people knew if they messed with one, they got 5 and no one liked those odds. However my daughter is an only child so its definitely something I worry about.
I hate to see kids getting bullied. Its very sad, I am nervous about this as well since my child will start kindergarten. I’m so glad to see your daughter is helping him in the process to overcome what has happened to him