MichMoms Blog

Category: Bullying

Your kid is a bully - and I'm not putting up with it

If you have a kid who attends a school, any school, then you have dealt with this problem. Unless, of course, your kid is the problem. So, if you read this and you have no idea what I'm talking about, expect a call from me shortly.

Your kid is a bully.

I don't care if he/she is troubled/ADD/ADHD/depressed or whatever, it's up to you to get him/her whatever help he/she needs. It's up to me to make sure my kid doesn't have to come home from school every day with a story about the latest name he's been called or place he's been hit, pinched or poked.

I realize it is a public school, but you know what? When I go out in public I do so with the reasonable assumption that I will not be verbally or physically accosted on a daily basis. I expect the same for my kid. Sure, I could move him to a private school to avoid the misery that is Your Child, but then I'm going to send you the $12,000 bill.

I know my kid isn't perfect either. He has his quirks, his personality issues. However, they don't include berating and belittling other people on a daily basis. So consider yourself warned, mother and father of the bully: This is my second kid. I've seen this already and I'm not putting up with it.

Category: Bullying

Empower kids to make them bully proof

Looking for a way to bully-proof your girls? I haven't had the opportunity to check it out myself, but a friend of mine put her 6-year-old in a day camp this summer called Girls Empowered. The idea was that her daughter would have fun while boosting her self-confidence with exercises that teach etiquette and conflict resolution, how to be assertive and other confidence building and safety-enhancing skills.

The Girls Empowered Web site lists a very wide variety of year-round programs, such as scout and teacher workshops, in-school and after-school programs, and girls night out events, to name a few. According to the site, the staff is made up of social workers, dieticians, fitness and dance instructors, school counselors and assertiveness instructors.

Girls Empowered doesn't appear to be a lecture-based outfit. Rather than talking skills, it seems they teach by way of discussion and action, role-play and creative activities. Role play in particular strikes me as an effective means of developing and honing interpersonal skills in kids. Having this resource for girls is great, but what's nice is that the company also offers similar training programs for boys.

Girls Empowered seems worth checking out. When I inquired by e-mail about the classes, I was fortunate to receive more than one response with program and registration information and Web site links, as well as the team's detailed tips on how to bully-proof your child. It looks like you can also buy training booklets online.