Does your teenager complain about certain people at school?
Just Parenting Advice recently posted an article about bullying and what you can do to help your kids if they are being bullied at school. Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D., has something to add to that. Social cruelty at school is no fun, especially for the victims and their parents…
What you can do as a parent is to take all comments regarding bullying seriously. You wouldn’t want to overlook something that could adversely affect your kids…
Then there are specifics steps you can take to help your kids cope with social cruelty in school…
The first (and best) step is to listen.
It is not easy for a young adolescent to tell parents about being meanly treated by peers. In the process, [he or she] sacrifices some pride in social independence, admits to some degree of unpopularity, violates normal privacy about [his or her] world of peers by going “public” about it, and worries that the mistreatment reflects badly on [him or her]. By listening parents provide understanding and acceptance. Now the young person is not alone.
If there’s one thing that’s worse than being bullied, it’s feeling like you are alone. Your kids may feel like there’s no one out there who understands what they’re going through. Feeling alone is grounds for feelings of depression and worthlessness. But your kids didn’t do anything wrong! Make sure you let them know that, and reinforce the fact that you’re ALWAYS there as someone they can talk to.
Check out the other 4 steps at the link below.
In the meantime, have your kids been victims of social cruelty at school before? What happened, and how did you deal with it as a parent? Are they stilll being bullied? Share your stories below (anonymously if you wish!).
Helping Adolescents Cope With Social Cruelty At School [Psychology Today]
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