Do you worry about your children being bullied? Or maybe do you worry that your children bully? Nearly 160,000 kids miss school each and every day for fear of bullying. Every seven minutes a child is bullied on the playground. No wonder we worry! What can we do? Well, for starters we can realize that quite possibly we might be unintentionally raising a “bully.”
One of the best ways to stem the tide of bullying is by not acting like bullies ourselves. If children learn what they live, maybe it is time we take a look at our own personal responsibility for the bullying epidemic.
*We have to stop bullying our own children by threatening, manipulating, hitting, ridiculing, or belittling them.
*We can respond rather than react, not just to our children, but also to other people throughout the day. We can respond with reason and compassion when dealing with a driver who has cut us off, a coworker’s unreasonable behavior, a spouse’s bad mood, or a neighbor’s invasive actions.
*Cutting out violence for the sake of entertainment makes violent acts a foreign concept to our children. Violent movies, video games and sports desensitize our children to other acts of violence. When violence is the “norm” and “fun” where can we go from there?
*Foster a sense of community with those beyond your inner-most circle. Explore different cultures, languages, lifestyles, music, traditions, and beliefs and treat people equally regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, race, or age.
Leading by example, we can make a better path for the next generation and with that, generations to come!
Laura Fogarty
Editor, Ask Lala
Laura Fogarty writes “Ask Lala” for the Stop Abuse Campaign. She is a mother, an advocate and the author of two children’s abuse prevention books: I’M THE BOSS OF ME! and WE ARE JUST ALIKE!