Bullying

I want to talk about bullying. When I was in elementary and junior high school, at any given time, somebody was making fun of somebody else. And, sadly, I admit that I was involved in the process of making fun of others. To an extent, I think it was peer pressure, wanting to fit in, wanting to be liked. But what I've noticed, is that bullying, teasing, and the like is starting at a younger age now. I've seen Pre-K kids gang up on one particular child.

But, the sad thing about bullying is that there is a silence associated with it. I don't remember telling my parents about the fact that "today we were making fun of this person because he was fat," or "we were mocking this girl because she smelled bad." It all happened between peers.

This makes me terrified for when I send Ari to school.

I can only draw from my own experience, as a frame of reference. And from what I recall, I didn't tell my parents about making fun of other kids, and I didn't confide in them about when I was being bullied in the 8th grade.

Although, actually, I did tell my brother, and he drove to pick me up from junior high school one day after school and yelled names out the window one of my torturers. That was pretty awesome.

The thing is, I was very close to my parents, and I still didn't tell them about the extent to which I was being tortured. I thought I had to go to school everyday in 8th grade and bear the brunt of my misery alone. I remember it vividly, walking up the stairs at school, hear racing, scared of what was going to happen to me that day, who was going to say something soul crushing.

If Ari should be made fun of in school, I want him to be able to tell me about it. I don't want him to feel the weight of being bullied alone.

Oy gavolt! This is the type of stuff that makes me want to homeschool my kids!

What do you think? Were you bullied? How do you deal with bullying?