My 6 Year Old Was Being Bullied

My son was so excited and nervous to be going into the 1st grade. He talked about it all Summer long. He had so many questions about it. Will he do good? Is he smart enough? Will 1st grade be hard? Just the usual curiosity for a 6 year old. My expectations were about the same and very simple. He would go to school, learn and make new friends, but I never expected he would be a victim of bullying.

We are in Houston and school started two weeks late because of hurricane Harvey. Everything was good at first. He was bringing homework daily and learning new things. We would discuss school everyday and he would tell me all the things he learned each day and what all the bad kids were doing as well. I would say maybe after two weeks of school he started telling me about a boy calling him names.

At first, I didn't think much of it, you know kids are just being kids. This will probably die down after awhile they will laugh about it and move on. But, it was consistent and eventually came to the point it was almost daily. My son would come home and say mom so and so called me this (bad name). Why does he call me (bad name)? I tried to encourage him and speak positive things to him and tell him that is not your name and just ignore it. I tried to be positive, but when he came home one day and said this is making him feel sad, I knew I had to do more.

With him telling me he felt sad, I automatically started thinking the worse. I know my son is young but there are a lot of kids that have hurt themselves because of bullying. At this point I knew I could not just blow this off. I asked my son if he told his teacher, he said no he couldn't tell his teacher. That was a concern to me that he did not feel safety in telling his teacher. My first step was to get the teacher involved to see if the school could intervene before things got out of hand. I wrote a note to his teacher explaining the situation and asking for her help with this matter.

I am glad to report that this was addressed right away. The teacher spoke with my son and the little boy, but she also got the boy's parents involved to make them aware of his behavior. The little boy also felt bad about it he was crying and apologized to my son for his behavior. I kind of felt sorry for him but hoped he learned a valuable lesson. When I picked up my son from school that day his attitude was a lot better than usual. He was smiling and very happy to tell me he had a very good day at school.

I am glad that this was resolved, but I am also sad that this has happened. In my mind, bullying is something older kids go thru but now I see it can happen at any age. I am glad that my son felt comfortable enough to tell me what was going on and I am glad that I did not sweep this under the rug and approach it as if he needs to "tough" it out.

I hope this will be a life lesson that both children will carry out. As parents we do our best to protect our children. We should never take for granted when our children share their problems with us, even though it seems minor to us it is a major problem to them.

Regards,

Marcee' Bonds

www.marceebonds.com

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