What to Do If Your Child Is Being Bullied

Things You Must Do

Don't act like you don't notice anything and nothing special is going on. Your child suffers and you have to help. The first step is listening. Listen to what your child is telling you. Show your child, that you've heard him/her by retelling what you've just heard.

Don't make any decision of how to handle the situation on your own. Ask your child how does he/she want you to take it forward. This way your child won't feel excluded from deciding what to do and won't feel more stressed.

Many children think that being bullied is their own fault. You have to reassure your child, that it's not really this way. Tell your child that it's not the weakness that makes him/her bullied. It's about the lack of self-confidence. Encourage your child to appear confident and feel this way. Speak about body language, face expression and tone of voice that can show uncertainty. Act out the situations when your child is being bullied and repeat the best responses.

Make sure that bullying doesn't influence or at lease dominate your child's life, and for this you need to help him/her develop new skills. Encourage your child take new activity, like self-defense or drama. Your child will have a new area, new friends and interests. It will build confidence and ease the importance of other nagging areas.

Things You Shouldn't Do

Don't try to see the teacher, principle, the bully or bully's parents. This is the thing children are terrified of. Moreover, your actions may even make problem even more serious than it was. Plus it will add more anxiety and stress to your child.

Don't tell your child ignore bullying, like it's just a part of growing-up. It gives your child a wrong information, that bullying is normal and he/she needs to tolerate it instead of stopping.

Things You Can Do at School

Don't go to see the teachers, because they are normally the last persons who learn about bullying in the class. Instead of this make an appointment with an anti-bulling committee, that exists in all schools. The people who help children handle bullying may be called supporters, listeners, mentors counselors, that depends on every school.

Don't arrive at school whenever you want. First you need to make an appointment with the teacher or the principle. Make clear that you want to cooperate with school to find the way out of this problem. Let school try to handle the problem.

If you see that the situation doesn't improve, start your own bullying diary. You need this diary to write down every case when your child was bullied. Include here the date, what happened, who saw it and who did it. Also write down what your child told and what kind of effect it had. If your child is hurt, add some photos (go to police if the abuse was serious and visit your doctor).

This information will help school to deal with the bully. Schools have many ways to choose, they are ranging from seeing bully's family to permanent exclusion.