Teaching Your Child How to Deal with Bullies

Now before you read the rest of this email I need you to take a deep breath and go into this with an open mind. Because I know when we hear anything about our child and bullies it immediately triggers those mama bear instincts. HOW DARE ANYONE HURT MY BABY. And I completely understand that feeling. It’s almost instinctual to immediately get ready to rumble when it comes to protecting your child. So go ahead and fume and huff at home. If you have someone to privately rant to about it to let them hear about it, but then we’re going to do something a little differently and leave those grumblings at home. No angry letters to the bully’s mom. No heated phone calls to the teacher. Instead of bringing the battle to the playground, we’re going to take a different, more impactful approach. (Something that will not only help your child, but possibly the bully too!) First thing: we need to remember that children do well if they can. Misbehaviour and acting out is the result of a child not having a certain skill or needing more help strengthening that skill. And this applies to bullies too. It’s difficult to extend that grace to a bully, especially one who’s distressing and possibly even harming your child but it’s important to remember this because it’s going to frame how we approach the situation. Second: the traditional methods of punishment, “stern discussions”, and in some cases even isolating or separating the children from each other rarely create a long-term, sustainable solution. And it certainly doesn’t give your child the tools or skills they need to deal with bullies in the future either. So how do we deal with the big bad bully? On this class we´ll discuss: - How do you deal with a bully? - What´s actually helpful? -  How to approach the situation Grab the Scripts to Manage the Top 10 Crazy-Making Behaviours: prnt.link/scripts Watch the video recording here: Join the Parenting Posse: prnt.link/group the Mudroom is recorded live every Wednesday at 1:30pm ET/ 12:30pm CT/ 10:30am PT on Facebook: facebook.com/arfamilyservices