PART 1. GUIDELINES FOR PARENTS TO HELP KIDS WITH BULLYING…

More than 50% of youths bullied fail to report it to an adult. As parents and guardians, we play a critical role in ensuring that schools and communities are safe and fair for our children. This means helping the child to identify, reject, report or help another person being bullied is as important as training your child not to bully others.

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Here are a few things parents can do to help their kids.

1. Communicate with children: Parents must find time to speak and get to know their kids. Talk to them every day about anything. Tell them how your day went and ask how they did. Tell them your problems and try to get them to offer suggestions to you. This way, you can also get them to open up and tell you their problems as well. Most importantly, talk about bullying and the need to report it as soon as they identify one.

2. Raise children to be respectful and helpful: From an early age, parents must stress on the importance of good values. Teach them to respect their peers, be kind, resilient, and responsible for themselves and others, to know how their actions can affect others and so on. Help them to appreciate that personal success is not everything, but the ability to care for, help, contribute and make a positive impact in society is more important. 

3. Teach kids how to respond to bullying: Parents must listen to their kids. Stay  calm, let them tell the whole story. Let them know you are concerned. Try to develop a plan with them. Do not be quick to jump into the school or confront the perpetrator’s parents. Offer simple solutions that will encourage him/her to work on the problem. Most importantly, keep a close eye on them and learn more about how they are improving or overcoming the problem.

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4. Work together with your child’s school to stop bullying: The idea of discussing bullying with school authorities can be overwhelming. But not working with them is worse. Try to be present at Parent Teacher meetings to raise your concerns. Find out what the school policies are, and if there are anger, stress and emotional management classes for kids. Ask about how these classes are done. Ask about how support staff (e.g.. bus drivers and janitors) can help. Work with them to  help them make the environment safe for every kid at the school.