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The Danger of Bullying at School

Posted By: Viviana on August 18, 2010 at 8:09 am

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photo credit: Orecchio di Grano

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School is a place where kids learn social skills and bullying is part of kids growing up. Sometimes, parents or educator often overlooks and regards it as harmless teasing. Bullying may start as teasing which is fun and playful. When teasing is done constantly and the victim gets hurt and angry, it is no longer fun. Bullying can be in forms of verbal or physical abuse. Verbal abuse even go unnoticed and bring psychological damage to the kids and affect s their performance at school. It is important for parents to notice if the child bullies other kids or the child becomes the victim.

Why kids become the victim of bullying
A child often becomes the victim of bullying if he is one of a kind or different from the rest of the kids. A child who has different physical appearance such as too thin or too fat often becomes the victim. If the child is introvert, she may often keep to herself about the verbal abuse or she may worry about her parents’ reaction. Most parents don’t notice if there is no physical injuries. Look for signs when the child shows no enthusiasm of going to school. Coax the child to talk about her friends and find out if she becomes the victim of bullying. Tell her that it is not her fault if she gets bullied. The following strategies may work:

Cool down strategies or show Poker Face. Show no expression or no interest when bullying started. Hold the anger or tears. The kids who bully will get satisfaction when the victim cries or gets angry.
Talk with someone. Talk with someone older who has been the victim such as her elder sibling. He may have the solution and sharing the similar bad experience makes your child feel better.
Tell an adult. Teacher can be a mediator to help stop bullying. Talk between parents of kid who bullies and parents of bullying victim may help resolve the problem if both parents can understand.
Remove the luxury. If kids bring luxury items to school, it can be the prey of other kids. Just bring the basic necessities so your child will not fall into a victim.

Why kids bully
Kids bully because kids may feel superior and they think that bullying or teasing the victim is fun and cool. It brings popularity for them or they may follow others to join bullying because of friendship. It is important for parents to teach kids to respect others and appreciate the differences and not making jokes when they see other kids who are different.

At home, you can try to lessen the effect of bullying. Find activities that bring self confidence for your child and make your child happy. Discourage bullying among siblings.

Bullying have existed years after years even when I was in primary school. I was a victim of bullying during primary and high school. I remembered that my parents talked to the parents of kid who bullied me by repetitive name calling in primary school and it resolved the problem. When I reunited with my school mate in high school recently, he didn’t even remember that he bullied me once. But bullying leaves a deep scar for the victim that will remember for life. For my kids, they just bring basic necessities, decent lunch and less money in school so older kids won’t prey for them.

Diary of Wimpy Kid is just one example of how bullying happened at school. We, parents sometimes them. Phrases that we speak out or actions that we do can make our kids become the victim.