Teaching Your Child To Deal With Bullies

Bullies are an unfortunate part of life that we wish our children could avoid. Unfortunately that's
not always possible and so we have to prepare them for how to handle things instead. With the
ever rising rate of violence in schools it's a good chance that your child will come in contact with
a bully at some point during their school career. By preparing them for this eventuality we give
them the tools to deal with the situation so that it doesn't overwhelm them.

The first thing to teach your child is that there is no shame at all in walking away from a bully or
a fight. It takes a bigger person to walk away even when they are being picked on and may be
close to losing their temper. Let them know that the bully wants them to lose their temper so that
they will then have the fight they are trying to cause. Walking away deprives them of this fight
and keeps your child safer.

Next thing to teach your child is that if they are being picked on they need to tell someone in a
position of authority be it you as the parent, a teacher, or a bus monitor. There is no reason to let
the situation continue when telling someone could alleviate the problem. If they tell someone at
school and you find out that the situation has been handled it's best to let it go but if it hasn't
been handled then it may be time for you as the parent to step in. There's a couple of ways that
you can do this. You can request a meeting with the teacher to find out why things haven't been
taken care of. If you do this try to go in there calmly with an open mind it's possible that things
have been done behind the scenes that your child is not aware of. You can also call the child's
parents and request a meeting with them. It's very possible that the parents aren't aware of their
child's actions and sometimes a simple meeting can fix the problem.

Self defense should always be used as a last resort. We don't want to encourage our children to
fight but there is nothing wrong with putting them in classes that teach how to defend themselves
when it's no longer possible to walk away. Children who take martial arts classes are much less
likely to get into fights because one of the foundations of a good martial arts class is respect for
others and for yourself. People who have a great respect for themselves and the people around
them don't go around starting fights. These classes are also good for giving your child a
heightened sense of self esteem which in itself can help prevent them from being picked on.
Bullies are much more likely to pick on children who don't act very sure of themselves because
they are easier to pick on.

These are just a few of the things that can be done to help your child to deal with bullies. Not
every technique is going to work in every case. Sometimes you just have to play it by ear and
decide how to handle things as they happen. There's nothing wring with this but it helps to have
a few plans in place before a problem develops.