Bullying, know when to fight back

Did you know that Michael Phelps was bullied in middle school?  I recently read an article about it and how it affected him.  I bet those fools are really proud of themselves now.Many of you have personal stories regarding bullying or know of someone that does.  That said, I’ve decided to share a personal story with you.  Before the end of the last school year, my child had an incident with another child at school.  I wavered with the decision to write about it.  I’ve come to just one conclusion with all of this… if you don’t bring light to a situation, you can’t possibly help someone else facing a similar ordeal.

About my kid…she is on the honor roll, she is popular amongst her peers, she is the type of kid that strives to please.  She is laid back and easy going.  Perhaps that is why she was targeted.

With the initial incident, the other child and her mother were called to meet with the principal.  The child admitted her actions and sent a letter of apology to my daughter.  After the events, I was admittedly disappointed to have never heard directly from the parents themselves.  Even though this is not how I may have handled it, I decided we should appreciate the letter for what it was and move on.

Imagine my surprise when just two weeks later, my daughter’s teacher called to inform me of yet another incident with the same girl.   Off to the principals office they go again, each telling their side of the story.  With only 4 days left of the school year, the principal was disheartened to be having this conversation with me yet again.  Again, no contact from the parents.

Fast forward to last month.  We have a new puppy.  In all the years I’ve taken our dogs to the vet, I never realized that the vet we see is actually the father of this other student. Now that I realized this was one half of the parenting unit to this (enter choice descriptive word here) kid, I felt passionate that I would most definitely not give them our business.  My husband convinced me that maybe I could use this as an opportunity to turn a bad situation around. I decided to give it a shot. So during the visit, without being confrontational, I said that I had never realized in all these years our children were in school together.  The rest of what happened is what really burns my ass.

He claimed to be unfamiliar with the situation at school yet in the same breath, he said, “oh, that was your daughter?”  There’s one thing I respect and that is someone taking accountability for their actions.  Good, bad or indifferent, if you did something, own it.  He never did.  He actually blamed his wife instead.  This man was clearly uncomfortable as I don’t think profuse sweating and stuttering are the norm for him.   I guess taking accountability isn’t taught in Veterinary school.

Bullying or not, the acting out by the other child for attention needs to be handled by the adults involved.  The parents of the child behaving this way need to equal responsibility of the situation to be sure it does not continue.  In this case, I don’t feel this has ever happened.  If you can’t control your own children and teach them correct behavior, maybe you are qualified to parent a child.  He should stick with animals since that is his area of expertise.

You can gather I have a new vet now.  For more information about how to stop or prevent bullying check out thislink.

Best,

Tiffany