The hardest part of being a parent is watching your child go through something really tough and not being able to be there, to help, to fix everything.
Last year I remember having such bad anxiety sending my oldest daughter to kindergarten and hoping everything would be fine. It had been just me and her all day long. She didn’t go to daycare or preschool. I was and still am so fortunate to be a stay-at-home mom.
So sending her off to school for kindergarten was hard.
I was terrified not knowing what she did and had to go through during the day. I wasn’t there to fight for her or be the voice for her that I’ve been since day one. Thankfully she did great in kindergarten with no major incidents.
First grade is when things changed for her.
With more class work and more homework, school became a little more challenging. But that hasn’t been the biggest problem yet!
Bullying reared its ugly head.
According to the official website for the US Health and Human Services’ Stop Bullying campaign:
Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance.
With first grade coming to an end, it saddens me as I write this but my oldest daughter has been dealing with major bullying. It’s not just her either. It’s her whole class who has been dealing with the same two kids that are doing the bullying.
All. Year. Long.
There have been multiple incidents such as verbal and physical, as well as social. At first I thought maybe she was being hypersensitive and possibly overreacting. Boy, was I wrong! Do you know all the different types of bullying that exist?
- Verbal Bullying, such as teasing, name-calling, taunting, and threatening to cause harm.
- Physical Bullying involves hurting a person’s body or possessions. Examples are hitting, kicking, pinching, pushing, tripping, spitting, taking or breaking someone’s things.
- Social Bullying, which is sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. That can mean leaving someone out on purpose, telling other children not to be friends with someone, spreading rumors about someone, and embarrassing someone in public.*
(*Note: The info above is paraphrased from the Stop Bullying website – to read the full descriptions and learn more about bullying behaviors, please check out their website here).
And now I feel like a terrible mom for even doubting her.
But after hearing more and more from other parents, talking to her teacher who has apologized for these kids’ behavior, and even seeing it with my own eyes…. I still just can’t believe this is happening in her class. I’m talking about name calling, antagonizing to the point it’s funny to them, even physically harming kids. First grade seems way too young for this behavior! But I guess that is kind of the point. It can happen at any age. Honestly it makes me so sad knowing bullying still happens and our babies have to deal with it.
First grade is hard enough, from homework to reading to full days.
In first grade your biggest worry should be about if mom packed your favorite snack. What also makes this hard is my daughter not telling me that this is happening to her. I have to hear everything from the teacher or other parents. I’m thankful though, she has had such a wonderful teacher and amazing support from her classmates as well. They really stick together and are there for one another.
Being a parent is hard! No person or book can prepare you for dealing with this. I just hope I’m doing the right thing. I would be so upset if my daughter were a bully. I don’t understand how kids this young can act this way and seem to enjoy it. It’s shocking really. Shouldn’t we as parents be teaching our kids the importance of being kind starting from a young age? I’m always reminding my daughter that if anyone is mean to her to find a teacher or an adult immediately. If she sees someone being mean to another, find an adult. I can understand if these parents are busy with work and such, but you can never be too busy for your kids.
No more “kids will be kids.” Bullying leads to so many terrible things.
I remember having to deal with bullies later on in my life. I just don’t remember it happening in first grade. Also shocking to me how it’s casually portrayed everywhere! The other day Disney or Nick was on (odd since it’s usually always Disney Jr. that’s on), and this new show still has actors portraying the “mean girls.” Like it’s a totally acceptable part of life. It’s not right for television shows to keep showing this, especially kid shows. Being a kid is hard enough. When will the cycle of bullying stop?
