How to Know If Your Child is Being Bullied
January 22, 2019
From the Child Mind Institute:
We are all aware that being bullied as a child is not a trivial thing. It not only causes acute suffering, it has been linked to long-term emotional problems, and children who lack strong parental support seem to encounter the most lasting damage.
But we also know that it's part of growing up to have painful or embarrassing social experiences, and that learning to rebound from these interactions is an important skill for kids to learn.
If our kids complain about bullying, we want to take their complaints very seriously, give them the support and tools to handle it, and intervene on their behalf when needed. But we don't want to teach them that every negative experience with their peers is a form of bullying.
Kids I'm working with will say, "I was being bullied." And when they describe what happened, sometimes it was really just teasing. Maybe someone was giving them a hard time and it was difficult to deal with. But not every incident of meanness, rejection or hostility is bullying.
When does teasing or harrassment become bullying?
