How to Bully-Proof Your Kids

Your child does not have to put up with a bully, or even be the target of a bully. The following is a list of things you can do to make your child bully proof.

1. Enroll your child in a karate, self defense, or some other course that will help them learn some moves to ward off attackers, and protect themselves from physical harm. Bullies usually start out their bullying with emotional warfare, and then move toward physical bullying. Sometimes a bully will go straight to hitting, kicking, and the like. So, to make sure your child does not get beat up by a bully, teach them how to defend themselves.

2. Encourage your child to tell on bullies. Even if your child is not the one being bullied, if they know someone who is, they should tell on them. A bully can hurt someone. If a bully is going to bully another child, and knows that you are going to tell on them if they bully someone else, you will likely tell if they bully you. A bully doesn’t want to bully someone who they know is going to get them in trouble. It is not worth the risk, especially when there is someone who will let them get away with bullying.

Teach your child to respect others.

3. Make sure your child travels with a friend. Bullies like to pick on kids who are alone. They prefer to pick on the easiest targets. So, make sure that your child is not an easy target. If you want your child to be bully proof, encourage them to travel in pairs. Having a buddy with you makes it easier for your child to avoid the confrontation and aggressiveness of bullies.

4. Limit your child’s time on the Internet. You need to monitor online use because much of today’s bullying has become sophisticated, and is less about the physical and face-to-face abuse, but the mental and psychological abuse. They might torment your child through emails, instant messages, social networking posts, and the like. So, help your child avoid this by teaching them about appropriate online usage, and how to protect themselves by not setting themselves up for bullying. If your kid puts an incriminating picture, or writes something that can be construed to mean something else, a bully will use it for fodder, so make sure your online security is high, and your kids are thinking about their actions.

5. Enroll your child in schools with no tolerance programs. It is much easier to make your child bully proof if you have support of the schools, where a lot of bullying takes place. Encourage your school to start a no bullying program, and to enforce it. Encourage them to provide courses for self-defense and the like. This will help your child steer clear of bullies, as many kids won’t risk getting kicked out of school just to pick on someone.