Mom Earns Respect From Teachers & Parents After Learning Her Son Has Been Bullying A Classmate
When a mom named Maggie found out her son was bullying a classmate, she chose to take action instead of just sticking her head in the sand. It was that response that garnered her praise and respect from both teachers and other parents.
Most parents might have a hard time accepting that their child might not be the nicest kid in the room when they’re at school. Nobody wants to believe their child could be the one causing problems, or even worse, bullying someone. But as clinical psychologist Jamie Howard, PhD, explained to Child Mind Institute, if you find out your kid is the bully, it doesn’t mean they’re bad. It also doesn’t mean you can just let it slide, either. He shared, “Kids engage in all kinds of behavior that isn’t a reflection of who they are as a person.” He added, “They’re still figuring things out. They can be nice kids who have made some mistakes.”
Mom earns respect from teachers & parents after learning her son has been bullying a classmate.
In a TikTok video, Maggie, who often shares videos and updates about her son, William, and everything he does and says, admitted she felt compelled to share a recent incident at his school. “This is the side of parenting that sucks,” Maggie began.
She continued, “I just want to preface by saying that his teachers love him, and he usually gets along with kids pretty well. This morning I go and I drop him off at school, and his teacher comes up to me and she says, ‘Hey, I need to let you know something.'”
Maggie explained that her son’s teacher informed her that there is an emotional child in the class who her son has been provoking by calling him a “crybaby” to make him cry. Maggie was shocked to learn that her son was being a bully.
The mom immediately pulled her son aside to speak to him about his actions.
BearFotos | Shutterstock
Determined not to allow this behavior with her son to continue, Maggie insisted that she wasn’t going to be raising a child who was a bully. She pulled her son aside and told him they were going to talk about what the teacher had told her.
“I said, ‘Did you do that?’ And he said, ‘I did.’ And he’s on the verge of tears, and I hate leaving him at school when he’s upset, but I don’t care,” Maggie said. “So I said, ‘You’re gonna find him this morning, and you are going to apologize, and I don’t wanna hear anything else.'”
Maggie insisted that the one thing she doesn’t stand for as a parent is learning that her child is deliberately making someone else feel bad. She learned from the teacher that her son just doesn’t get along with this other classmate, which Maggie said she’s taught her kids that you won’t get along with every single person you encounter in this life.
But just because you don’t get along with someone doesn’t mean that there is room to be mean or a bully to them, Maggie added. She’s taught her kids to learn to coexist peacefully with people because, as they grow up, they’ll surely run into people who aren’t their cup of tea.
As punishment for the bullying, Maggie informed him that she would be taking away one of his favorite toys. “You don’t get to treat people that way,” Maggie said. “So he had to pick out his favorite toy and donate it. We’ll just have to keep donating toys until he can figure this out. Hopefully this is it, but I’m nipping this in the bud right now.”
Experts have provided parents with tools if they find out their child is a bully.
The steps that Maggie took to discipline her son after learning he was a bully garnered praise from both teachers and other parents. Many of the things she did, like communicating with her son, were things that child development expert Elisa Bronfman and psychologist Johanna D. Sagarin recommended parents do.
DimaBerlin | Shutterstock
“Explore with your child the story of their interactions with the target of the bullying in a nonjudgmental way. You will receive markedly less information if you start the conversation with anger,” Bronfman and Sagarin explained. “It is possible to be compassionate towards your child and the target, as well as to patiently gather information before indicating that a behavior was out of line.”
It’s never easy to hear that your child was making someone feel bad in any way. It can also be easy for parents to just dismiss the entire thing or go easy on their child rather than properly disciplining them. But the only way to end bullying behavior in a child before it escalates and gets worse is to call them out on it and make sure they learn that it’s never the right choice.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
Comments are closed.