How To Stop Bullying – Discovering The Problem
Are the telltale signs there? Is your child coming home from school more scuffed up than usual? Is there an element of fear when he talks about school or friends? Is he dismissive of incidents where there was violence involved? All parents fear that their child could be bullied at some point in their school lives, and this is a real possibility.
How To Stop Bullying – Watch and listen
Before you can learn how to stop bullying you first have to recognize that there’s a problem. There are very few children who will walk in the font door after a day at school and announce that they were bullied. This is because bullying is not just about physical violence; it is also about the psychological foreplay that precedes that violence. For the victim of bullying, it starts off with the bully undermining the child in public, identifying and playing the child’s weaknesses, and conducting an emotional and psychological attack on the child as an individual.
If the responses these forays elicit are fear or withdrawal, then the bully is able to hone in
for more vicious attacks. Looking for signs that your child is being bullied is important, but difficult. It is about you watching your child’s interactions with other children, and also about you listening to what your child says and then reading between the lines. It is always useful to direct conversations to who the most popular and unpopular kids in school are and why. This allows insight into what your child perceives as acceptable and unacceptable behavior. If you can then direct the conversations to the specifics about these individuals, this may be a good step to identify whether there is a risk that bullying is taking place, with your child or someone else’s.
Watch for the telltale physical signs too. Torn clothes or minor injuries that start appearing suddenly, but on a regular basis. These are strong signs that some sort of physical fallout is happening to your child.
How To Stop Bullying – Take a deep breath, now
Is there anything that you can do as a parent to alleviate the suffering your child must be going through? Well how to stop bullying depends on how old your child is. The younger the child, the easier it is to find ways to stop bullying. If the child is still in grade school, the most discrete way to handle this is to raise the matter with the school, in the child’s presence. You should not speak to the school authorities without the child being present, as both will have to provide the child with some assurances about how the matter is going to be handled. Most school administrators have dealt with the problem before and can provide many different ways to stop bullying. Having your child present is a critical part of dealing with the bully and the issue of bullying and it is imperative that the child’s views about the matter are seriously considered, and the child’s opinion and input sought. Be careful not to make promises you cannot keep.
If the child is older, then you will need to sit them down and discuss the matter and let them provide possible solutions with your responsibility being just to be there for them. There are a lot of peripheral issues involved that cannot be dealt with by you directly, and a little ‘letting go’ will be in order.
Never just sit by and say it will be over soon, or your relationship with your child will be over before you think. Learn the ways to stop bullying and how to stop bullying and take a stand now.
