Take a minute to watch this. As a parent, I want to reach out to him and tell him it will all be okay. As a human being, I want to reach out and hug him. You can just see the pain in his eyes and a kid so young should not know that kind of sadness.
I'll warn, it's heartbreaking but I encourage you to watch it because this is something our kids may face. They may even be the one who feels pressured to bully, tease or call names.
We as adults teach our kids a lot. As long as adults think it's okay to bully each other, this chain will never be broken. We can pretend that this is not something we have to worry about but the truth is, it is and bullying will not go away unless we teach our kids differently. We as parents have a duty to teach acceptance, to teach respect and furthermore, to teach that this will not be tolerated! I love being a mom more than anything but raising a child in a world where things like this happen terrify me and I want to shield my child from it all but I know it's not possible. I'm not sure some kids understand what power their words have on another. Words do hurt and they can be our most powerful tool.
I pray that my child never has to suffer this pain but I do know one thing, my child will know that we treat each person with respect and that bullying is NEVER okay.
Here are some resources:
http://www.stopbullying.gov/
http://www.thetrevorproject.org/
http://www.pacer.org/bullying/
Ellen DeGeneres's has a whole list here too:
1 comment:
This is one of my biggest fears for Rachel. Your son will be able to "fight" back. Rachel will not. I will have to rely on parents, like you, to teach their children how to treat other people with kindness, especially people like my Rachel girl.
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