A few notable signs are: unexplainable injuries, lost/ruined items, feeling or faking sick, change in eating habits, difficulty sleeping, declining grades/school avoidance, loss of friends/avoiding social situations, decreasing self-esteem, or any actions related to running away, self-harm, or mention of suicide. It is important to take each of these signs, and any other signs, seriously when you notice them. If you think someone is joking about wanting to die or making light of some kid in their class that constantly teases them, don't brush it off. They are reaching out to you, even if it seems like nothing. Chances are that they would not mention it if it did not matter to them.
In all honesty, I believe we should focus more on teaching our children not to bully than teaching our children to cope with bullies. Do parents know that their child is a bully or do they miss the signs? The list of common signs of a bully are: they get into fights often, have friends that are bullies, aggressive, are reprimanded by the principal, teachers, or get detention often, have extra money or new belongings, blame others for any problems, do not accept responsibility, and are competitive. These are just some warning signs you can look out for in our children.
Do you think these warning signs help? Can you think of any more that were not mentioned in this article? Have you ever witnessed these signs?
I think alongside teaching kids not to be bullied, we should teach them to stand up to bullies. So many times kids witness other kids being bullied and don't do anything to stop it because they too don't want to stand up against the bully (even though they aren't being targeted). If more kids stand up for kids who are being bullied the act will be noticed, and more kids will stand up also.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is very important to teach children not to be bullies and that their actions have consequences. We do not live in a perfect world and kids can be mean, especially in adolescence. For that reason I think it is importation to teach children to stand up to bullies and also teach them to be comfortable in their own skin. All the messages in the news about kids committing suicide is alarming. Now I see commercials spoken by popular media figures that are aimed at kids who are facing bullies. Do you think those really help?
ReplyDeleteI think the warning signs would help, but it seems like they are always missed. I had a discussion in one of my classes about how prevalent bullying and violence in general is in the media nowadays, and if there is more bullying now than there was before or if it is just being acknowledged more. I think part of the problem is that the bullying follows kids home now, on social media, cellphones, etc, and while the parents may think they are watching for signs, many parents do not monitor their kids' computer use or cellphones enough (I think anyway!). There are so many campaigns and anti-bullying movements, yet it is still happening SO much it is ridiculous. I'm not sure of what approach could be taken to really make a change, but I do believe something needs to be done!
ReplyDeleteWarning signs would definitely be helpful in reducing bullying. Many times parents do not even know whether their child is being bullied unless something big has happened! And on the other side of the story, parents don't even know that their child is the one who is bullying other kids and making life difficult for them. So if the parents could see and read those warning signs then they could save their kids from bullying in the first scenario or stop their child from bullying others in the second scenario. Parents should always have good communication with their children and should examine them closely.
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