The bullying has to stop. It has gotten out of hand and seems to be reaching new levels. I was on Facebook the other morning, checking everyone’s statuses. One of my Facebook friends had something in her status about her son sending her frantic text messages that he was being bullied at school.
I don’t know what she ended up doing but if my child was sending me frantic text messages from school, I would be there in a heartbeat. I still don’t think that bullying is being taken as seriously as it needs to be.
Bullying has gone to a whole new level since the time I was in school. I remember being bullied and I hate to admit it, dishing out the same. However, bullying in my day was mostly done through face-to-face interactions. I really believe this is why bullying was not such a huge issue as it is today.
A bully is really a coward but today bullies can take cowardliness to a whole new level through other methods. Now bullying happens through the telephone, computers and cell phones. It’s an easy way to do a rotten thing.
I take bullying very seriously. Too many children have taken their own lives because of what bullying has done to them. This has been an issue in my home that thankfully seems to have stopped.
My oldest son is very laidback, quiet and shy. He mostly keeps to himself. Unfortunately this made him a target of bullying starting in middle school. Thankfully it was never anything too outrageous but it was difficult for him all the same. I did have to talk with teachers a couple of times but for the most part it was kept under control.
Then high school came. It tends to be a little more difficult when they are in high school. I think this can especially be true with boys. They don’t want mom to come rescue them. One semester my son had a class with a boy that was intent on picking on him. Again, it was nothing too extreme but I knew the daily picking was getting to him.
I really had to battle with what to do. He adamantly refused my help so I didn’t want to embarrass him or make things worse. Yet it killed me as a mom to know he was going through this. The last time he was bullied was kind of strange.
My son was standing in the hallway talking to a friend when his bully came by and walked so hard into him, he knocked my son down. He walked away from my son laughing. I can only imagine the embarrassment he must have felt. When he told me about this, I thought steam was going to literally come out of me. I was absolutely furious. I told my son that I was calling the school but he begged me not to. He said everything was fine.
The next day the strangest thing happened. My son was once again standing in the hallway when his bully came to up him and asked, “Are you okay?” It was obvious he was talking about the incident from the day before and my son responded that yes, he was fine. The boy then apologized, walked off and never bothered him again.
Since that incident last year my son hasn’t been bothered. I don’t know exactly what caused that to happen but I am very thankful. It really hurts as a mom to know your child is being bullied.
We really need to start having some frank discussions with our teens about bullying. The bullying has to stop.
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