Bullying

"To treat abusively."

Bullying has been on my mind the last few months, probably because of school being back in session. Here are my three stories: 1) I volunteer at my daughters elementary school in the copy room where I help make copies, count, sort, etc., and laminate. For a few weeks solid all we did was make copies, count, and sort lesson plans for all the teachers on bullying. I know it is important and I am grateful for her school for taking the time, effort, and energy to incorporate this into classrooms. As I was going through Shelby's backpack I pulled out one of those sheets where she had to say how she would stand up for someone that was being bullied and why. She said that she would tell the bully to stop being mean because she remembers a bully being mean to her in kindergarten and it hurt her feelings. Mind you, she is in third grade now. And this is the first time I heard about it. 2) The college class that I am currently in is 'Health for Elementary Teachers,' and we learned more about bullying. Some of my classmates told their stories of being bullied. It is so amazing to me how we can remember those type of experiences so clearly and how it affects us emotionally. 3) Morgan's tackle football team is going to a tournament in Mesquite next month and we (he and I) had a talk about it tonight because the coaches need to know for sure who is going and how many hotel rooms. We went from three options to zero. A) Morgan and I go (Shelby optional). B) Morgan just goes. C) Don't go at all. We broke down each option and discussed it. I finally decided that I wasn't going to go at all and that he should go for the experience. I told him that he had to make the final decision and that I don't want him to think that I was bullying him into a certain decision. As I am writing this, Morgan said that I wasn't bullying him. I told him that in a way I was. And I truly believe that. We as parents may think that we are just being manipulative but yet at the same time we are the bullies to our children. I wanted to end with a church quote about bullying and was surprised to find 144 magazine articles on bullying. I never realized that the church talked about it that much. So, it was a great spiritual lesson moment for me.