now they continue through text, Facebook and other social media sites .. NON STOP!
Back then, walking away usually pretty much stopped it. Now there's no escaping someone who just wants to be mean.
I thought there was. One can simply tell their child to get offline, go outside, pick up a book or something, and then, bullying ceases, no? But if one teaches their child that they have to surf and read all the mean comments made about them, all day long, then I guess there is no escaping it.
These kids are publicly humiliated and made to feel like the world would be better off without them.
Some folks say that kids who are being bullied should toughen up since it is not the parents job to be a friend to their child. Are you on that side of the fence, and if not, what is your take on it? If you ever been bullied, how did you stop it? How does it affect you today?
I do believe children just aren't as tough as they used to be, because many think killing themselves is the only way out of their situation, but it's the parent's job to make their child feel protected and like they do belong. However, it can be difficult to do this if the parent doesn't even know what's going on, so it's sort of on both the child and the parents to open up dialogue about stuff like this.
I remember when I was in grade school, before all this "cyber-bullying" stuff got popular, my daddy would ask, almost everyday, if any children were bullying me and my older brother, and taking our money. Though I was often annoyed having to answer "Noooooo." all the time, I do realize that he was making certain we were in a safe environment, and weren't being intimidated into silence about anything wrong going on. He'd say, "Y'all know y'all can tell me if someone is messing with y'all, if something is going on and they told y'all not to say nothing, yeah? Y'all ain't gotta feel embarrassed or nothing." And my brother and I found confidence in this, knowing if ever we were bullied, we could tell him without feeling ashamed. So like I said, it's on both child and parent, I believe; parents should look for it, and children shouldn't hide it.
My dad had experience being bullied, himself, but he confronted his bully and wanted to be there if we ever needed to confront one.
And I've not been particularly bullied, though I had been in fights; I, myself, did the bullying, but it soon stopped and I became friends with the guy I bullied.