A Modern Mom’s Guide to Handling Bullying

 Today we’re sharing a wonderful story from Jeanette Anzon, called A Modern Mom’s Guide to Handling Bullying. Huge thanks to Jeanette for sharing! You can find her at Adventure Dweller.

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I run home crying to my mom. I remember her scolding me, saying I shouldn’t be crying over kids throwing paper at me. It didn’t help, I was 8 years old back then. The kids continued to throw paper balls at me until high school. I was just a kid that time and I don’t have some paper to teach me, like a guide in handling bullying. I just learned to live with it.

Flash back to present, now that I am a mom, I won’t let that bad experience happen to my son. But how do we handle a situation where our child is given a hard time? What if he is the one bullying other kids? Do we get into the fight or do we let it go? They are just kids anyway. That is what mothers usually get wrong. Bullying has crossed the boundaries from physical bullying to technologically-savvy bullying. They wouldn’t want to go out of style and as a modern mom, I also have a few tricks up my sleeves. If you’re still clueless on  handling bullying, read on and find out how.

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A Guide to Handling Bullying

Handling Bullying starts with Dealing with The Bullied

Modern Mom's Guide to Handling Bullying: Dealing with the bullied

Bullied kids are those suffering from shameful comments online and even physical harm in school. Unlike me, some people cannot take on too much of bullying. Take for example, Phoebe Price of Massachusetts who, at the tender age of 15, took her life due to continuous cyber bullying from classmates. Bullying hinders kids from being fit, healthy and happy in the school environment. Kids who are dealing with bullies in school often suffer with physical, social, mental, and emotional issues like depression, anxiety, decreased academic performance, while others may even retaliate to violence over their bullies.

Whether your child is being bullied in school or not, a parent must always initiate communication. Be interested and focus on your child. Listen to their problems and explain where to draw the line between kidding around and bullying. Don’t be pushy when asking; as a parent, you should know that it’s not easy to spill out your issues to your mom. Convince your child that bullying is something that should not be tolerated but should be resolved in a nice way.

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Seek the help of their teacher or counselor and maintain an open communication between parents. Have meetings dedicated for tips on how to overcome bullying. If your child is suffering from physical bullying, you as a parent should talk to the parent of the bully. In most cases, physical violence is rooted from excessive watching of violent TV scenes or movies, or seeing violence in their home. Together with your child, be persistent in battling out bullying because it does not end right away. Keep the computer in the family room, install filter and security options. Encourage your child to talk more because an open communication is the healthiest option for a healthy family.

Dealing with Bullies

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Accordingly, the National Education Association reveals that more than 160,000 kids avoid going to school and prefer to stay at home due to the fear of being bullied. More often than not, bullies are a result of kids suffering too much aggression and seeing it as the only way to solve problems. Oftentimes, bullies are greatly influenced by their home environment. These kids are likely to pick fights, gain friends through fear, engage in early sexual activity, and be abusive adults.

Parents, work on educating your child to overcome bullying at an early age. Explain what a bully is and the effects of bullying. Create a culture of accountability and forgiveness. If your kid is bullying another child in school, talk about it. Know the reasons behind his actions and explain that there are consequences to his actions. Experts say that bullies often act as victims, so the conversation has to focus on them taking responsibility for their behavior. It’s important to work on your kid now before anything worse happens like having him imprisoned. You could still save you kid from making mistakes that could greatly affect the rest of his life.

I have been bullied in school and like me, you should know better for the sake of your child. Be the hero you’re kids think you are and set the example. Seeing your son or daughter be victims of bullying is painful, I know, but let him handle his own fight. This trains his abilities to be independent from others. Understand that this is part of childhood and as a modern mom, you have to be the support and give the right advice for him. Modern means cool, classy, and wise, so be a modern mom.

What do you think of this modern mom’s guide to handling bullying? Do you have anything to add?

5 thoughts on “A Modern Mom’s Guide to Handling Bullying”

  1. Bullying is such terrible thing. Kids definitely need to learn to resolve issues themselves, but they also really need all of the adults in their lives to be proactive and put a stop to it.

  2. This is so important! I think the most important thing parents can do is keep communicating with their kids, so that the kids let them know what is really going on, both good and bad.

  3. My boys are a bit young for cyber bullying but my oldest is experiencing it in real life. I dread the day that we might have to deal with it online because it’s so easy to do!

  4. I agree that children should work on handling the issues themselves. However, not all children at all ages are capable. Being the victim of a bully can have disastrous results if it goes too far and parents need to be aware of that.

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