Anti-Bully
Everyone remembers having an encounter with the schoolyard bully, the rude loud mouth who seems to enjoy making kids miserable. I can recall many stories that I would love to forget about. You teach your kids to respect others and accept differences but what would you do if your kid was being intimated by a classmate? Part of the solution is sticking up for themselves, parents must reinforce again and again that bullying should not be tolerated and that a child who is being harassed is absolutely in the right to tell his parents and school staff. If a child sees one of their classmates being bullied it is absolutely their responsibility to report it.
Many doctors say, “If adults are serious about eliminating bullying from schools, they must eliminate it from their family life.” You have to model the right messages to your child. If you are rude to the telemarketer that calls in the middle of dinner or the waitress who completely got your order wrong, what are you telling your kids. Children like to imitate their parents or what they see on television. If you want to stop the bullying we all have to shape our kids behavior by being advocates for fair treatment of others.
