Every morning that I wake up, I find myself swarmed with a\nmultitude of responsibilities or chores for the day ahead. One of the biggest\nresponsibility as a parent, I believe is to keep your child safe and protected.\nOne of the ways to do so is to empower your child with ideas and means to\nprotect themselves when no one is available for help. How do you then expect mere\n5-6 year olds to protect themselves? Thanks to the dynamic nature of our work\nand lifestyle, we cannot always be around our children to keep the wrong away\nfrom them. Parent\u2019s need to continuous communicate with their children and make\nthem aware of their surroundings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kids love spending time with kids and it doesn\u2019t really\nmatter even if they are older kids. It is, infact one of the best ways for kids\nto learn. Kids observe other kids and are very good at aping behavior. The\nproblem arises when these older kids begin bullying the younger kids. It was\njust the other day when my six year old felt hounded by his set of friends who he\nalways shares his toys with. He felt stranded and was left crying alone over a trifle\nof an argument. The worst part, his parent\u2019s weren\u2019t around to rescue him from\nall the silent bullying that happened. Luckily he had another family member\ncome to his rescue. How I felt as a parent, well besides wanting to smash them\nlike hulk, I also felt like going into hibernation because mom guilt was\nengulfing my happy spirit energetically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I decided to shun the mom guilt and ask it to part itself in\na corner and decided to speak to my little beloved one about bullying. I first\nhad to understand why he felt so affected by what others said and then make him\nunderstand about doing the exact opposite. Well, I am not sure, if I told you\nenough that, parenting isn\u2019t easy. I also told him that since he already loves\nhimself so much, he should love himself a little more, so that other\u2019s opinions\nabout him should feel like pouring water on a duck\u2019s back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So while we spoke a lot about growing up and how it\u2019s ok to\nexperience different emotions, I also made sure I comforted him and heard him\nout completely. Here are few ways that parents can handle bullying in children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Explain what bullying\nis<\/strong> \u2013 Often parents ask kids to give in or ignore a certain negative behavior\nfrom other child. Parents however need to educate children about what bullying\nis and how can they identify it. Bullying can be done for various reasons, such\nas to cause pain or to show power. It is an incident that occurs frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communicate<\/strong> – A\nworking parent, a stay home parent, a work from home parent or a single parent.\nWhatever your parenting set up is like, you must always, always talk to your\nkids! Keep the communication open and friendly. Yes, you need to draw\nboundaries of discipline sometimes but that shouldn\u2019t stop you from asking them\nhow they are feeling or how their day was. You should also share about your day\nin order to encourage them to talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Appreciate positive behavior<\/strong>\n– It may not always be necessary that your child is being bullied, sometimes\nthey can be the bully too or may just be a bystander. Educate them about\npositive behavior and appreciate it. If you notice your child doing something\nnice, appreciate it immediately. If your child has witness someone getting\nbullied, teach them to offer support to the victim and also take a stand\nagainst bullying. Teach them to involve an adult when confronting a bully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n