Bullying is a serious problem that can cause tragic results if measures are not taken to fight against it. According to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center, more than 1 out of 5 students report being bullied in the US, which is more than 20% of all students. And while there are plenty of prevention programs out there to help tackle the issue, it might give parents a false sense of security that whatever happens in school is ‘not their problem’ and that teachers and school staff will prevent any trouble. Well, turns out, that’s not enough and parents should always keep an eye out for signs of trouble.
One mother recently took to Reddit to share a story of her daughter’s personal victory against a bully. As the woman explained, her daughter was pressured and teased by a former friend who was manipulating other friends and causing her daughter distress. “She was changing and becoming withdrawn, listening to sad songs and telling me she had lost her ability to make friends,” the mother told Bored Panda. Turns out, the girl tried to hide away the situation and it only came to light when her friend’s mother informed the mom.
One mother recently shared her daughter’s ‘petty revenge’ story online
Image credits: pxhere
Following an incident at school where she was summoned by a principal, the mom posted this story:
“Today I got a call from the school my 9 year old attends asking to please come up to the school because my daughter was in trouble for vandalising another child’s property. This surprised me because my daughter is a bit of a goody two shoes and never gets in trouble so I dropped what I was doing and swung by the school to find my daughter sitting in the Principal’s office grinning ear to ear. I was ushered in to take a seat.
The Principal immediately launched into a tirade about how my daughter had deliberately broken another girl’s necklace and how unacceptable it was. Once he was finished, I turned to my daughter to hear her side of the story.
Last year my daughter saved up her pocket money to buy best friend necklaces for her and this girl. I ordered them from Wish.com for her. This year the friendship went belly up when I discovered this girl was trying to extort her friends including my daughter into buying her expensive items on a kids game with threats, backstabbing my daughter and threatening anyone who dared play with her at lunch so she was completely isolated. My daughter cut off contact and has been rebuilding her friendship circle and all was going well until this little girl started repeatedly demanding that my daughter give her the other half of the friendship necklace so she could give it to someone else. The fact we were the ones that bought the necklaces to begin with was apparently a minor irrelevant detail.
My 18 year old niece and nephew are very protective of their young cousins and were quite upset for her so they decided to offer her the opportunity for therapeutic destruction. Last weekend they got out their tools and helped my daughter shatter the charm into 7 or 8 pieces with a hammer, some pliers and had a great time. My daughter put the pieces of the charm in her jewellery box as a reminder of what fake friends can do to you.
Anyway apparently this girl kept demanding the necklace every day hassling her so my daughter hatched a plan. She gathered up the pieces into a little bag, took them to school today to empty the bag in front of the girl and told her she was welcome to the necklace as long she likes jigsaw puzzles but she will probably need some glue. Apparently the girl went red and stormed off to the teacher to say that my daughter had destroyed her necklace and my daughter was sent to the office.
I couldn’t keep a straight face and burst out laughing. You could see the vein in the Principal’s forehead pop out as he looked at me laughing. I pulled out my phone, showed him my purchase history to confirm that we bought the necklaces and my daughter is perfectly within her rights to destroy her own property if she so wishes.
He finally dismissed us and my daughter skipped back to class laughing hysterically. My niece and nephew are quite proud and planning to take my daughter out for ice cream this weekend to celebrate her standing up for herself.”
Image credits: pixnio
“My daughter would try and play with other girls only to be told she wasn’t allowed to. It turned out any girls she tried to play with were being threatened by her bully so she eventually started playing football with the boys instead at lunch and has been enjoying herself immensely” the mother explained how her daughter managed the situation. Luckily, it all ended well for the 9-year-old as she had excellent support around her, despite the way the school staff handled it. They apparently employ “the High 5” technique to fight bullying (which has steps – ignore, be friendly, put up your hand and say “Stop it! I don’t like it” firmly and then reporting to a teacher). The mother says that this method is ineffective and just grooms children to be future victims.
“The bully apologised last week and begged to be friends again” the mom reported. She also added that she’s proud of her daughter’s choice to forgive the bully, but distance herself from her as there is no longer trust between the two.
Here’s what people had to day in response to the story
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