Bullying! Just Say NO!

If you are on Facebook, Pinterest, or any other social media site I'm sure you've seen the post about a New York teacher that taught her students a lesson about bullying by using a simple sheet of paper. For those of you that have not, here is the story:


"A teacher in New York was teaching her class about bullying and gave them the following exercise to perform. She had the children take a piece of paper and told them to crumple it up, stomp on it and really mess it up but do not rip it. Then she had them unfold the paper, smooth it out and look at how scarred and dirty is was. She then told them to tell it they’re sorry. Now even though they said they were sorry and tried to fix the paper, she pointed out all the scars they left behind. And that those scars will never go away no matter how hard they tried to fix it. That is what happens when a child bullies another child, they may say they’re sorry but the scars are there forever. The looks on the faces of the children in the classroom told her the message hit home."

See, as home-schoolers most would think that bullying isn't something we have to deal with. But it is, it's something that, in my opinion, EVERY parent should discuss with their child or children. It's something that at some point your child will encounter. Bullying or being bullied doesn't just happen at school, it can happen on the internet, at the playground, during extracurricular activities, it can happen anywhere. Any child is susceptible to it, no matter their background. Rather they are private schooled, home schooled, public schooled, college. It DOES NOT matter. So as parents we have to take a stand, teach your kids about bullying/being bullied, teach them what to do in the situation, or if they see someone else being bullied what they should/shouldn't do! It only takes one. Stand up!

We do the above exercise in our home, several times a year, it does seem to hit home. I believe that doing it this way does help younger children understand and really sets a light bulb off in older children. It takes 10 minutes or less of your time to talk about it. We have also watched the movie Bully, which was heartbreaking to see the pain and torment of these children, but well worth the watch. One thing I think most parents can agree on is that bullying needs to stop! But it starts with us as parents, to be aware, to take the time to teach our kids a lesson about it, to stop with the "It's just kids being kids." mantra; IT'S NOT! Some kids these days are darnright mean, the petty fights we all had as children are different this day and time, plus the internet bullying that goes on. So take a stand, make yourself aware of just how bad the bullying in our country is, make your children aware, because it needs to stop. No child anywhere deserves to be bullied for anything! 


                   SAY NO TO BULLYING!


Here is a great website to use, Lessons On Bullying, and there are several more available out there.