noobiechickenlady
Almost Self-Reliant
Leah, that sounds like a wonderful program. The fact that former bullies signed up shows to me that people can band together for betterment if someone shows them the way.
What free stated about the young adult brain makes complete sense. How do you hear kids talk about problems? Usually a minor situation is the end of the world to them. I would think it is a continuance of the toddler melt-downs. You know, the blocks fall over and the world falls apart.
All kids need someone (better yet, several someones) to look to for guidance and reasurance that "This too shall pass." Parents need to talk to their own kids, not only about whether they are being bullied, but if they know anyone who gets beat up all the time. If a few more kids stood shoulder to shoulder with the bullied kids, the bully would probably back off.
I try to encourage my kids to see differences in people as gems, not detriments. DS meets no stranger, like you described your brother and if he shies away from someone, there is usually something fundamentally wrong with that person. The last person he wouldn't shake hands with is in jail now. I encourage that, to a point. Don't want him getting into a car with someone, even if he does have good instincts.
DD couldn't figure out why memaw was calling the bus driver black when he obviously had brown skin. "It looked like yummy, yummy chocolate." (her words) And no, mother wasn't being racist, she was trying to learn which of the two bus drivers was driving a particular day. Later on DD said, I'm not white, I'm tan! We ended up having a great conversation about how we are ALL different, even she and myself are different. And that we were made that way so that we would find each other interesting and have good conversations and learn new stuff from each other. She's 8, I thought it went well.
What free stated about the young adult brain makes complete sense. How do you hear kids talk about problems? Usually a minor situation is the end of the world to them. I would think it is a continuance of the toddler melt-downs. You know, the blocks fall over and the world falls apart.
All kids need someone (better yet, several someones) to look to for guidance and reasurance that "This too shall pass." Parents need to talk to their own kids, not only about whether they are being bullied, but if they know anyone who gets beat up all the time. If a few more kids stood shoulder to shoulder with the bullied kids, the bully would probably back off.
I try to encourage my kids to see differences in people as gems, not detriments. DS meets no stranger, like you described your brother and if he shies away from someone, there is usually something fundamentally wrong with that person. The last person he wouldn't shake hands with is in jail now. I encourage that, to a point. Don't want him getting into a car with someone, even if he does have good instincts.
DD couldn't figure out why memaw was calling the bus driver black when he obviously had brown skin. "It looked like yummy, yummy chocolate." (her words) And no, mother wasn't being racist, she was trying to learn which of the two bus drivers was driving a particular day. Later on DD said, I'm not white, I'm tan! We ended up having a great conversation about how we are ALL different, even she and myself are different. And that we were made that way so that we would find each other interesting and have good conversations and learn new stuff from each other. She's 8, I thought it went well.