It’s very common for kids to get bullied at schools. As a parent sometimes it can be hard to tell your child how to respond if he or she is being bullied. Teachers, educators, private tutors can take measure to protect children from bullies, but as most bullies are sneaky, there is no guarantee that your child won’t be bullied again. However, if you teach your child some solid skills on how to respond if bullied, it can make a big difference.
Step 1: Don’t react. Do little or nothing!
Teach the kids to show no reaction to the bullies when they attack them. Ask the children to practice giving a black stare to the bullies and keep this one practicing over and over again. Teach the kids to pretend they didn’t hear anything if the bullies said anything means them. Call the kids with some hurtful things and coach them to do little or nothing and keep their faces as neutral as much as they can. Tell to practice in front of the mirrors. Praise them for their efforts.
Step 2: Agree with anything the bullies say to you!
Teaching a child to agree with whatever mean things bullies say to them? It sounds preposterous! Well, surprisingly it works. Agreeing with everything bullies tell will fully disarm the kid who is being insensitive or rude. For example, say Mark and Roger are two kids. Mark is bullying Roger.
Mark: You shoes are ugly!
Roger: That’s right. My mom told them to wear them to win the award for the “Student with the ugliest shoes!”
Do you notice Mark was looking for an argument with Roger, but instead, he totally blew Mark off.
Step 3: Change the Subject.
This technique often works well for kids you’re socially challenged. The trick here is to modify the subject or distract the bully to something else, so the child who is bullying completely forgets what he or she said in the first place. For example, if Mark said to Roger that his shoes are ugly; Roger can quickly change the subject of distract Mark by saying that Mr. John will be taking a pop quiz today.
Step 4: Laugh at the bully or make a joke!
Kids just know how to laugh. Still, practice it with your child. Coach them if a bully said anything hurtful to them, to simply ignore it and laugh. Even better, if you teach your kid to give the bullies a blank stare after laughing at them. It will leave the bully and other kids completely puzzled. To practice first demonstrate it, by allowing your child to be a bully. Ask your child to tell you to mean things and laugh at them.
Step 5: Stay away from the bully
This works in two ways. First, if the mean kid is really physical and out of control, it’s better that if your child gets in proximity to the bully, he or she can be physically harmed. So, it’s better to stay away from the kid who being mean. Secondly, tell your child that every kid all go through to some phase while growing up and often the person or in this case, who’s being insulting is just looking for some space. Sooner or later, they’ll come around the other day. In the meantime, give it to them.
Conclusion
Only teaching your kids skills to tackle bullies won’t be enough. You’ll need to give a lot of advice and support. Practice with your child about all the conversations you had. Ask him or her about their progress and if they used any of these techniques lately. If yes, then help him how he might have used these techniques and how he or she can improve these distract the bully or defuse the situation.