As I mentioned before, I recently had the pleasure of hearing Jodee Blanco speak at our local Catholic Middle/High School and she had some wonderful ideas on how to respond to your children with issues of bullying.

Here’s a few tips from her:

1.  Don’t go on and on about your personal school day stories.

2.  Don’t tell them to suck it up or ignore it – that is one of the worst things you can do because it teaches your child to ignore inappropriate behavior and never take any action or stand up for themselves.

3.  Don’t rationalize bullying by explaining that the only reason people bully is because they feel bad about themselves – although that may be true and also may help them understand or sympathize it doesn’t change the fact that someone is hurting them.

Teach your children how to confront their fears and face up to bullies.  Often times bullies look for weak targets.  When they realize that you are not going to take it lying down they’ll move to someone else and when they do your child can help the new target stand up as well.  United we stand divided we fall.  Get involved in school – volunteer and be seen.

I would love to hear your thoughts or concerns on this topic.  ♥

UBC: Day 26