If your child is a Bully?
If your child is a Bully?
- Understand the bullying situation from your child as well as his or her teachers. Keep in mind that your child may try to deny or minimise his or her wrong – doings.
- Encourage your child to own up to his or her bullying behaviour by reassuring and supporting your child to become a better person.
- Make it clear to your child that you will not tolerate such behaviour and discuss with your child the negative impact bullying has on the victims.
- If your child has considered their behaviour as play, discuss with them that what they consider as play has hurt someone.
- A consequence is useful to let your child know that his or her behaviour is unacceptable such as removing certain privileges or a reflection time about their bullying act.
- Increase your supervision of your child’s activities and whereabouts, and who he or she is associating with. Spend time with the child, and set reasonable rules for his or her activities and curfews.
- Co-operate with the school in their efforts to deal with your child’s bullying behaviour. Frequent communication with teachers and/or administrators is important to find out how your child is doing in changing his or her behaviour.
- Praise the efforts your child makes towards non – violent and responsible behaviour, as well as for following home and school rules.
- Pay attention to other good behaviours in your child and encourage more of those. Help your child realise that he or she is not bad at all.
- Be a good model of non – harmful behaviour to others. Children learn a lot from observing their parents.
- Make sure that your child is not seeing violence among members of his or her family or viewing violent media such as television shows, cartoon, and online games. Modelling of aggressive behaviour at home can lead to violence by your child against others at school at later life.
Seek help from a counsellor, social worker, or children’s mental health centre in the community if you would like support in helping your child stop his or her bullying behaviour.