Clever Pink Pirate

I want to thank Linqia and TakePart.com for giving me an opportunity to talk about something important as a mom of two school aged children.

Bullying is a serious problem that affects communities across the country. Whether it’s name calling, cyberbullying, or physical violence, it needs to stop.

If you were to ask me what was the toughest part of growing up, I would probably say growing up a girl. Of course I am speaking one sided here but it was really tough always trying to “fit in” and I felt like I always struggled  with the being in with the “popular girls”. It’s not that I wanted to be popular, I just wanted to not get picked on or bullied against. Girls can be mean. Just downright cruel sometimes with no reasoning besides just to be mean. I still remember some of the things girls said to me in Jr High that emotionally scarred me back then.

I’m sure most of us have seen the movie mean girls, a funny take on the life of the popular girls. While I love this movie, it’s just a movie and not a true depiction of how mean girls can be. It saddens my heart everyday when I hear about bullying with kids and the unfortunate end results. It saddens my heart that 13 million kids get bullied every year. That is just a crazy!

How do you deal with this as a mom? I’d love to protect my kids from the evils of the world. All I can do though is have a listening ear and educate them on stages through life life. This includes keeping them in the know on how to deal with bullying situations at school. Of course with social media and texting this is even harder to battle. When talking to my kids especially Clever Tween who has access to these

Here are the key points I talk to my kids about when we discuss bullying and issues with kids at school:

•  No one can make you feel anything, you are in control. Words hurt but they are not permanent.
• You are amazing and if anyone bullies you it’s because they don’t value their own self worth and they think they can feel better by hurting others.
• If you have an issue with someone who is threatening or bullying, come to me and/or a teacher. This is the same if you see someone else getting bullied at school as well.
• If you receive a text or message from someone, please talk to me about it.

So what if you are in a scenario when your child doesn’t tell you? I can tell you I was just in this situation. I had saw a message on my daughter’s phone that was uncalled for. I talked to her about it and I actually went to the teacher. The teacher did a great job helping talk to the kids and diffused the situation. Clever Tween was a little embarrassed but I felt I had to do something. My first instinct was to get all mama bear and call the parents but I wanted to start the chain appropriately.

While we can’t control what happens in our kids lives we can educate them and vow to talk to them about bullying from BOTH sides of the fence! Our kids need to know that words impact us in so many ways even if it’s just teasing. I always tell my kids, treat others how you want to be treated. If you or someone you know is being bullied, let’s work together to squash it.

I haven’t seen the movie yet but the Bully movie (pictured above) looks like something my tween and I should watch. If you have watched it let me know your thoughts!

Please take a few minutes to sign the petition to stop bullying.

Disclosure: this post was sponsored by TakePart and Linqia, all opinions in this post are my own and this topic is something I feel strongly about.