When you learned that your child is being bullied, the initial reaction of a parent is to confront the bully. It is the common maternal instinct specially when there is a feeling that your child is being subjected to pressure.
If you learned that your child is being bullied, do not overact. Do not easily resort to confrontation and handle the bully yourself. If this is your action, you may not know it but you are also bullying the bully yourself.
Bullying should be immediately addressed, since this may eventually become the reason why the victim would like to stop to go to school.
Here are some tips that you can do if your child is a victim:
- It is important to focus on your child (the victim).
- Tell him to immediately inform an adult of any instances of bullying
- Teach him to stand up for himself (if it safe) or walk out of the scene and leave the bully alone if it becomes out of his control. Explain to him that moving out of the scene does not mean cowardice. After which tell him to inform his teacher immediately.
- Tell your child to be always with his friends or other kids; it is very usual that loners are an easy prey to this situation
- Role-play with your child on a similar incident and tell him how he should react on such incident
- Make the teacher aware of the incident. Talk to the teachers and discuss what has to be done to stop the bullying. You should not deal with the parents of the bully; instead it is the role of the school representative to inform the bully's parent. Who knows the bully also needs some psychological help that needs to be addressed too.
- Feedback - Always check on your child if there is a recurrence of bullying. After informing the teacher. If it still persists, the teachers/ principals should be informed anew.
Just an advice to those parents who's child is being bullied or a bully, please be sensitive and on the look-out on the behavior of your child. Sometimes they don't know how to tell you that they have been victimized. It's better to do something while it's early; don't let this attitude become a permanent thing until they grow up.
