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.

Our child and for that matter ourselves if we are being bullied at work, can grow in this area as we build confidence, learn both concepts and skills and develop a support system around us to combat bullies.

The very first step is recognizing that being a target is not our fault and that we do not have to put up with it continuing.  In fact we can do something about it whether we are a child or an adult.  In the next post I will discuss how to know before our child admits it – if they are a target of a bully.