Helping Your Children Avoid Bullies

John Thompson, from GreatDad, recently published an article on how to help your kids with the issue of bullying.  The U.S. Department of Justice has found that bullying is decreasing overall, but some high profile cases have raised concerns with parents over whether or not their children are adequately protected at school.  Even though fathers can not be with their kids at school, they can take a few steps to make sure their kids are better prepared to deal with any bullying they may face.

First, it is important to instill confidence in your child.  The National Youth Violence Prevention Center reported that most kids that are bullied are anxious, insecure, and have low self-esteem.  While it is important to teach your kids not to retaliate against a bully, fathers can promote children standing up for themselves verbally.  This confidence and verbal interaction might influence the bully to move on and avoid confronting your child in the future.

If bullying persists at your child’s school, consider notifying teachers or the principal to discuss any known students participating in bullying.  The school will most likely contact the bully’s parents and try to resolve the issue quietly and prevent any harassment in the future.  Fathers can also start up (or join existing) anti-bullying programs associated with their child’s school.  These programs were cited as one of the main reasons that bullying has reduced over the past few years.

To read GreatDad’s original article, click here.

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