If your child is a bully or a victim of bullies, you can feel helpless as a parent. There’s pleny you can do to help your child. With this in mind, here are four tips for parents to help their kids respond to bullying.
1 Open forum
If a child has an issue, he or she should not feel bad to talk to you about the problem. You should open up to your kid and tell them that they can say anything. When they speak, you must listen and not cave into the temptation of running your mouth and speaking too quickly. Remember, with an open and caring forum, your child can let his or her feelings out with ease.
2 Do not fear the school
Often, a proud parent will not want to involve the authorities or local school. This is a mistake as teachers and other people working on campus must know about the abuse. By understanding what is going on, teachers can take a proactive approach and avoid seeing the problem spiral out of control. In fact, with a simple and short phone call, you can get to the bottom of some issues.
3 Encourage high self-esteem
Due to the society at large, many children have low self-esteem. When this happens, a kid is more likely to become a bully or a victim. To combat this, you should compliment you children and let them know how worthy and good they are. When doing so, you can help him or her avoid the cycle of violence. Instead, a high self-esteem individual will have no problem asserting his or her ideas and stepping in to fix a situation.
4 Talk to the other parents
While a young kid may not understand why this is a good idea, you should talk to the other parents. Often, this is an easy way to work on the matter as the parents of the other child would probably like to know this information. Again, people should air out their emotions and feelings as the kids can find the root of the problem. Then, they can fix it and move on with their lives.
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With these four tips, you can help your kid’s response to bullying. You must realize that it is important to step in and help your children avoid the cycle.
Kara Masterson is a freelance writer from West Jordan, Utah. She graduated from the University of Utah and enjoys writing and spending time with her dog, Max. Information credit to Donald B. Phelps Corporation
