I have to tell you, when I asked everyone to share their wimpy kid stories, I had no idea how depressing it would be. I thought, hey, the movie was cute, so this will be a very fun way to look back and laugh at ourselves and our youth. I hope that many of us were able.
But I can’t tell you the number of times that rocks in my stomach crashed and jerked. All the comments come through on e-mail for me so that I can approve them before posting them to my site. So for the past week I’ve been receiving e-mail after e-mail about people getting beaten up in bathrooms and after lunches, about moms forcing hair dos that embarrass kids, about teachers (albeit innocently) making comments that get kids laughed at, about nicknames and being singled out and being different. I read a comment from an 83 year old woman. 83 years old, and my giveaway made her dig up bad memories.
It hurts. I cried reading your comments. My eyes welled up several times and I found myself shaking my head time and again. Kids hurt. Kids are mean. And kids are sensitive, too.
And we’re sensitive. And we can’t forget that.
Bullying exists. It always will. As much as parents and schools and communities try to run programs to advise against it, you know what? Its still going to exist. I’m not condoning it. But I certainly understand its out there and that, as a parent, its my responsibility to teach my kids how to handle it. How to politely excuse themselves from tough situations. And I want them to know that they should come to my husband and me to tell me about problems. I need them to feel comfortable enough. For them to know that, no matter what, I’ll listen and not judge. I’ll offer advice if they want it and I’ll help when they need it.
Parents, we should know that there are organizations available to help in cases of bullying. There are several bullying websites such as National Center for Bullying Prevention and Stop Bullying World Home. This article, Bullying throughout the Life Cycle, is a fantastic read for someone wanting to know the how’s, why’s and responses in the most basic of terms.
This weekend I was sharing my feelings about the comments I was reading with some friends. Melissa reminded me that her daughter was bullied last year on the bus. Bad. An older girl was really, really mean to Ellie, and Ellie was only in 1st grade. Melissa acted on it, contacted the principal and teacher and the principal was on top of it immediately. As she should be.
Beautifully, Ellie found the good in the girl.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry to all of you who dug down to enter a giveaway contest and brought back unwanted emotions. I feel absolutely terrible for that. I do hope that some of you were able to laugh. And that others took those emotions and grew from them.
Most important, I hope that you were able to look at your own children, or grandchildren, and tell them the story. Not to embarrass yourself. But to let them know that you’ve been there. And should they need it, you want to help them.
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© 2010, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.
for a wonderful site on bullying and cyber bullying it is a sad real life story but one all parents and kids should know: http://www.ryanpatrickhalligan.org/
I thought the exact same thing. I came back to read some of the comments, and I thought, “My God, this is so depressing.” I know it was not your intention at all to bring up all those bad feelings, I felt so bad for everyone. I know I look back on some of it and laugh. Other stuff sticks with you. It’s something I really want to be concious of when my kids go to school.
Twitter: justprecious
says:
Yeah. It sure wasn’t fun to read all the comments. And with Big entering 1st grade last week it was even harder for me to read them all. I still feel terrible for bringing back all those memories.