A Tough Subject - Bullying 101

As a parent, I worry about bullying. I worry about my girls being the victim of bullying...and I also worry about the possibility of them being the bully.

As much as we all want to believe that "my child would never do that" - it's that kind of ignorance that fuels this bullying epidemic.

Did you know that "one in seven Canadian children between the ages of 11 and 16 have been bullied"? (statistic taken from here) Or that "one out of 4 youth are bullied, one out of 5 youth are the bully and 282,000 high school students are attacked each month across the country"? (taken from here).

So if nobody thinks their children are bullies...then where is this all coming from? The sad truth is that bullying happens every day. Far more than what we probably think. And likely by kids who we wouldn't have thought would do it. Those statistics I quoted above are frightening enough - but here are some diagrams (source: here) that clearly show that bullying is already in full swing in Grade 1 already!

Percentage of students who reported being victimized in the past two months.

Percentage of students who reported bullying others in the past two months.

Percentage of students who reported both being victimized and bullying other students in the past two months.

And if that isn't enough, how about these statistics (source: here)?

• 25% of children in grades 4 to 6 have been bullied
• Bullying occurs once every 7 minutes on the playground and once every 25 minutes in the classroom
• In majority of cases, bullying stops within 10 seconds when peers intervene, or do not support the bullying behaviour
• Adults who were bullied as children are more likely to suffer from depression in adulthood.
• Between 10% and 15% of high school students are victims.
• 11% of secondary students bully other youngsters at least once a year.
• 31% of students say they would participate in the bullying of a young dislikes.

So what exactly constitutes as bullying? According to this site, punching, shoving, teasing, spreading bad rumours, keeping certain people out of a group, getting certain people to "gang-up" on others are all forms of bullying. And here is a chart (taken from the same site) that shows which forms of bullying are the most common.

I don't even want to look up the statistics of young children who take their own lives as a result of being bullied. I can hardly stomach the statistics that I have already posted.

So how can we stop this epidemic? How can we make sure that our children are not the bullies? We can work on saving the environment one cloth diaper at a time - but what about working on saving our children too?

Like the stats above show, bullying begins at a very early age. But as my girls continue to get older [they are 7 and 9 now], I worry even more about the "tween" years. And with the age of technology being where it's at, the fear of Cyberbullying is just one more added element to worry about.

We need to all take it upon ourselves to teach our children that any form of bullying is wrong. And to teach them how to stand up against bullying that they might witness at school or elsewhere. Whether it's because someone doesn't have the latest trends in clothes, they have braces, don't fit "the mold", are overweight, don't listen to the "cool" music, are too smart, are not athletic enough, have freckles or acne, don't smoke or drink, or are gay. None of that should make a difference on how someone is treated.

And not only do we need to take it upon ourselves to teach our children that...we need to live by that standard as well. Kids are a sponge and they watch our every move and listen to every conversation even when we don't think that they are. If they hear us gossiping about someone, or whispering about someone's fashion sense that might be different than ours, or see us staring at someone overweight...they will pick up on that and are that much more likely to adopt those habits as well.

It all begins at home. Our example. And we need to put down the shield of ignorance that we cling to that it couldn't possibly be our children who are doing this. We need to keep our eyes and ears open to what is happening around us.

It could save lives.

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My name is Andrea (Andi) and I have the privilege of working part-time alongside Pam to help her with "a little of this and a little of that" as she strives to bring superb customer service to all of you through her Tiny TreeHugger business.

I am a 33-year-old mostly stay-at-home mother of two girls (aged 6 and 8) and have been happily married for almost 11 years. I am a Pepsi-loving, game-playing, guitar-learning, Nutella-craving girl [among many other things that make me ME]. I cloth-diapered my girls when they were babies and enjoyed the cost savings as well as the feeling of helping the environment - one cloth diaper at a time.


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