A few weeks ago “the boy” told me something casually that at the time didn’t really register an alarm. He said that there is a kid in his class that is “gaining weight so he won’t fit into lockers at school”. Did you catch that? He is intentionally gaining weight so that bullies at school cannot put him in a locker. This child fears bullies at school so much that he is taking an extreme measure to insure that he’s not a target.

Are you kidding me?

Maybe I am just naive but I assumed that this has always been a problem. Each school, each class have had “that kid” that was mean, tough and overcompensating for something else in his life by bullying other kids. Movies and TV shows always have a bully. I don’t remember any names from “Saved by the Bell”, but I’m sure there was one on there too. Yet there seems to be a real uptick in the reporting of this being a problem in the schools. So is the just the “flavor of the month”, “slow news” or are we facing a new era of bullying?

I took a straw poll last night with my kids to just see what they had to say. I simply asked “Do you have bullies in your school?”

5 yr old: No…well, we have one….two actually.

She then listed them by name. So what do we as parents do? We recently ordered a copy of P90X and are teaching all three of our children to defend themselves.While I am kidding with that response (we have made no such order), I am curious how to handle this. I’m struggling with the words to tell my kids about bullies. I’m looking for ideas on what to encourage them to do.

I’m curious about your thoughts as well…..