Yesterday, my daughter had her first brush with “bullying”. She was playing in the park and two boys started pushing her around. I was standing few feet away, but to even my surprise… I did not do anything. I guess I wanted her to figure out a way for herself. However, my daughter being the easygoing type…kept going back to make friends with the boys and they kept pushing her. Finally, after trying 4-5 times, she came running to me with a question mark on her face.
At that moment it struck me…I DID NOT KNOW WHAT TO TELL HER! Do I tell her to push them back and basically teach her – Be rude to others when they are rude to you? Certainly not! Do I tell her to just walk away and thus not fight the injustice? Do I tell her to just say, “Please don’t do it” and possibly ask for more trouble?
I never imagined that such a simple, harmless incident would leave me in such a clueless state! Yes, it wasn’t a big deal… I mean c’mon they were cute little boys, just being silly!
I just hope the next time she runs up to me with a question mark on her face… I have an answer.
-Blogger13
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That is a very common dilemma. I have a 6 yr old daughter who is shy and a 4 yr old son who is very outgoing. I have not run into this situation yet, but I have thought about this many times. I think i would ask my daughter to go and talk to the person who pushed her and let them know she did not like them pushing her and walk away. For my son, i may have to do the opposite where I would have to tell him not to retaliate but to use his words.
ReplyDeleteAgain this is hypothetical, not sure what would work or how I would react when the situation actually happened!