Wednesday, May 25, 2011

The Weekend Bully

My baby, my big guy, one in the same to me. But, I know my almost 8 year old is not a baby. He is a good kid. He, like his parents, is small for his age. I don't know if this is the reason or if there is another, but a neighborhood bully is starting to really bug the heck out of me. What hurt T the most, however, is that when this bully threw a basketball at him, his friend followed suit. It was bad enough that the bully came over to our house and asked for T, but in reality was just here to get T's friend and get him to leave T behind.

I am trying to not "take over" and let T handle this himself. The thing is that this bully is around only on the weekends. And, when he is not around, T's friend is over playing all the time. But, according to T, when the bully is around, the friend leaves T in the dust. And, if the friend does invite T to join, the bully does everything he can to try to get rid of my T. So, T has decided he will not play with the bully at all, but will talk to his friend. I'm so hoping for the best outcome on this. The friend is a good kid and they do have such fun together, he has very nice parents too.

I was half tempted to tell the parents about the incident, but hubby told me we need to try to let T work this out for himself. The one conclusion we came up with together (T, hubby and me) is that a bully will try to isolate you in order to pick on you. That is why having friends who stand by your side makes it so the bully cannot isolate you. Failing that, just walk away. I hope we are helping him in the right direction!?!?

2 comments:

The Story Chronicles said...

So Mac just got off the bus with a similar story. This kid in his class is very nice and friendly during school and on the playground, but today in front of the bigger kids on the school van, he totally turned on Mac. It's so frustrating. Why are we trying to raise nice, polite kids when it's all wasted on these meanies!??!?!? Hope T's situation improves.

The Stone Rabbit said...

Susan, I'm so sorry Mac is going through this too. It is frustrating!!!

I was trying to let T handle this all, but just heard a terrible story involving this particular bully and a kid that no longer lives in country. So, decided to step-up my involvement one notch to make sure things do not escalate to that level. I went ahead and talked to the friend's Mom too. I like their family so much and just thought putting it on a few select people's radar was for the best. We will see. . .