Bullying

My mother-in-law gave us some great advice when our kids were small. We were worried about building confidence in our kids without it going to their heads. She told us to build them up all we can at home because when they get to school, the world will tear them down. We've taken her advice to heart and have tried very diligently to build our kids' confidence in themselves.

Well, I never thought any of my kids would be on the receiving end of bullying at school. But Erik told me the other day how there are several boys in his class who don't like him and will always laugh at him if he misses a question or doesn't win the game they're playing in class. His teacher then makes these boys "sign" the misbehavior book. 

The mother bear in me surfaced and I wanted to go to school and confront them and roar my terrible roars and gnash my terrible teeth. Now that would have been funny to have me, an adult, taking on a couple of 12-year-old boys. But isn't that what a mother bear does, protects her cubs. I guess I just don't understand why they've singled out Erik because he is a good kid who works hard in class and gets his school work done. He's not mean and isn't looking for confrontation. The sad thing is several of these boys lived in our last neighborhood. They were all in the same class in church and participated in scouts together.

Maybe Erik exudes too much confidence and they feel threatened by that. Maybe they don't like that he's a teacher's "pet." And maybe they're just being young adolescent boys who haven't matured. Whatever the reasons, I told Erik to not pay any attention to them. School is almost over and junior high will bring a whole new set of issues that hopefully don't involve these boys. You can't build yourself up by tearing others down.