Comments on: The Real Reason We Have Elementary School Yearbooks

By: arizaphale

arizaphale — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 14:46:16 +0000

This post sent chills down my spine.I ama4 often confronted with school bullying as a teacher and have to delve and mediate…..not always successfully;

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 11:18:10 +0000

You dealt with this brilliantly. It just breaks my heart to think of your son and what children have to go through at school. You don’t imagine these awful situations when the child is a baby. This week I was finally forced to acknowledge that one of my son’s “friends” is not the nice little boy I thought he was. I had noticed some spiteful behaviour in the past but put it down to childishness, then it was pointed out to me that this kid was bullying my son – several incidents were even captured on video at Kiko’s birthday party. Still I didn’t take it seriously. Then this week, this kid goaded Kiko into a situation where it was only by sheer luck he wasn’t killed. I feel sick even to think about it. Once I had got over the shock (which took a full day!) my first instinct was to cut off all contact with this kid. They will be going to different schools and we don’t have to see him – and Kiko is three! He is so naive and looks up to this boy, he doesn’t realise that he schemes to lead him into trouble. I don’t want him to be manipulated and treated badly when he’s so little. But then I decided we will keep seeing this child because he will be meeting schemers throughout his life and he may as well start learning the skills to deal with them. Of course I will never let him out of my sight or even grabbing distance when this kid is around, and on the next incident of bullying I am going to do as you did and talk to him about being a good influence and looking out for littler kids. This is a child who likes to look good for adults, so I think it will be an effective strategy. Wah! Why can’t life be simple and everyone be nice?!

By: Susan Helene Gottfried

Susan Helene Gottfried — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:17:38 +0000

Smart going, Susie! I wish I’d have thought of that when my son was having issues.

By: Painted Maypole

Painted Maypole — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:27:18 +0000

well played!

By: Heather

Heather — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:18:24 +0000

That is all kinds of awesome.

By: Henitsirk

Henitsirk — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:37:03 +0000

You rock! I have a little tear in my eye reading what you did.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:19:40 +0000

Oh, bullies! I’d rather be bullied myself than have my kids go through it. I wouldn’t have thought this was the kind of situation where everyone could come out feeling good about themselves, but you managed to make it happen. I admire the way you handled this!

By: Mary Beth (Cats, Books, Life is Good)

Mary Beth (Cats, Books, Life is Good) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:10:36 +0000

What a great way to handle the problem. I was part of the older brother/sister crew but I had older cousins who did the same for me, but that was back in the dark ages when all the kids played together.

By: Beck

Beck — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:39:06 +0000

Oh that homerun feeling of getting something RIGHT in parenting! GOOD JOB!

By: Hillary

Hillary — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:36:17 +0000

What a good mom you are! That’s brilliant.