How to Handle the Bully at School
Posted: October 10, 2019
A Parent’s Guide by Christopher Rappold
If you had a choice of ridding the world of bullies or learning the mindset and skills to minimize or eliminate their negative impact on your child, which would you choose?
Think about it very carefully because the answer to the question will reveal how you are viewing the challenge before you. At times parents can feel powerless against the never-ending siege of negative experiences that we cannot protect our children from. It can be very painful to be a spectator to your child’s struggles with a bully. Haven’t you wished that the bully would just "go away" so your son or daughter could just happily continue down life’s path? Has it ever really happened? Sure, occasionally you will have the rare treat of having the bully moving out of state, but how often does that occur? When it does, everyone breathes a sigh of relief, but unfortunately it is only a matter of time before the same challenge rears its ugly head again.
In life we will have challenges put before us. When we face our challenges, we are able to expand our capacity to take on other challenges. When we do not face our challenges, the same challenge will continue to appear until we either face it and grow or make ourselves smaller in attempts to win by avoidance. When children choose to become smaller, they turn inward, become withdrawn, stop taking risks and limit their capacity to learn and enjoy life. It’s not a good place to be. As parents, one of our highest responsibilities is to ensure that our children meet their challenges with an intelligent plan and the psychology to overcome their fears, doubts and worries.
