It would be nice if children knew that we cannot always read their mind. They do not know this unless we tell them. In fact we do not, even if we think we do, always know what is going on inside our child’s mind or for that matter in the minds of anyone, even those who are close to us. Our children need to know and feel safe about telling us when they have a problem and be willing to ask for help. That is far more difficult than we can imagine for anyone and especially children.
It is incumbent on us then to be alert to signs of things changing for our child and to ask questions and pay attention to them. Most bullying takes place out of site of those in authority. I remember an adult who told me about an occaision when they were trapped by a fellow employee in an upstairs file room out of site of everyone and pushed against the wall and threatened because they thought the boss was beginning to trust that person more than the bully was comfortable with.
But if a child begins to lose interest in past friends, begins to do poorly in school, feels sick every morning prior to going to school, or comes home with scrapes and is not willing to tell the story to your satisfaction, these may all be signs of bullying. The time for us to ask the right questions is now. How we ask the questions and the importance of our reaction in our next post.
Tags: balanced life skills, bullies, stop bullies
