What is your first thought when you hear the word “bullying”?
Maybe your mind draws to the movie scenes of the kid who gets sticks thrown at him on the playground. Maybe you picture the biggest kid in the grade turning the new kid upside down until his lunch money drops from his pocket. Maybe you even draw from an experience you yourself had as a child.
For the purposes of this series, we will define bullying as any repetitive words or actions that wound a child. We see bullying happen in a lot of different places and forms, but two things are constant: it is both intentional and harmful.
Bullying comes in many forms and is rapidly becoming a greater issue for children of all ages. While physical bullying is a very prominent issue, kids who are bullied today generally face more verbal and electronic bullying than anything. Verbal bullying is easier to cover up than physical bullying and tends to have less repercussions for the bully, but can be equally as painful for the child who is being bullied.
Maybe you’ve heard the term “cyber bullying” tossed around a few times. As kids become more and more technologically savvy, they are finding new ways to bully one another. It’s important to monitor your child’s online presence to keep an eye on both what they are saying about others and what others are saying about them.
In the coming posts in this series, we will dive into how we identify that a child is being bullied and how we Biblically handle these situations, whether your child is the bully or the victim. Be on the lookout for more information coming soon, and feel free to comment your bullying questions or suggestions in the time being.